Supreme King Jaden and the Master Thief
by calazar
Summary: Raven Callez is a duelist extraordinaire and apprentice to one of the greatest thieves in history. Jaden Yuki is the supreme king reincarnate and proud brother to his injured twin, Jason. How will the world react when these three individuals meet and attend school together? This is based off of Superneos2's "Supreme King Jaden" with my own character and twists in it.
1. Chapter 1: The Phantom and the King

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason and Asami belong to SuperNeos2. The only thing I own is Raven and his cards.

A/N: Like SuperNeos2 I loved GX as a kid. Unlike Superneos2 I never played the sly cooper games. Instead I played Maplestory, an online game that was originally created in Korea. so when I read "supreme king Jaden" and saw Jason's deck I thought "why the hell not" and made the Maplestory cards, these are based off of the hero classes and their back stories for any one who actually plays the game. I started thinking up this story for laughs basically, and now we're here... so review, follow, all that jazz. Oh, if you want to look at the images of the cards I made for the deck, they are all on my Deviant art account. I will leave a link to the first card on my profile page.

Chapter one

The Phantom and the King

"Head inside, go down the hall, and wait until your name is called." Fred said

The applicant nodded and went into the arena. Fred sighed. He slid further into his uncomfortable fold up chair and tried to relax. It would probably be awhile before the next one arrived. Why did this job have to be so boring? Fred had been doing the same thing all day long and was starting to get tired. After an hour of nothing happening he started to pack up his list of names, stacks of unclaimed application forms, and the table that all of this was on

"I wouldn't do that if I were you" said a voice behind him causing him to jump slightly.

Having recently seen a horror movie where the murderer always said that exact line before he killed them, on top of having an overactive imagination, Fred thought he was going to die.

"Are you going to kill me?" he asked fearfully as he raised his hands above his head and ducking slightly.

"What put that crazy idea into your head?" the voice asked confused. "I snuck up behind you and you didn't even notice me; if I wanted to kill you I would have done it already not announced my presence to the world."

"Uh sorry, guess I've been watching to many horror movies as of late" Fred apologized while turning around.

He saw a young man with blond hair and piercing violet eyes. The boy wore a white shirt and trousers with a blue line along the sides. He was standing on the top of the fence that the application desk was in front of, leaning against one of the beams that was taller than the rest of the fence. He had a slight smirk on his face and seemed to be chuckling softly.

"So if you're not going to kill me why did you say that? Or are you on my list?" Fred asked very embarrassed by now.

"That depends. Who's on your list? People who are supposed to make you pee your pants?" the stranger joked.

"No." Fred replied in an annoyed tone not having liked the stranger's quip one bit. "The people on my list are students who have passed the admission test to Duel Academy. These people are expected to show how good of a duelist they are in the Kaiba Dome right behind me" he pointed to the arena that was very easily noticeable.

"Very well, I might be on that list. Check for Raven Callez." The stranger, Raven, said hopping down from the fence rail "Also to answer your original question. I said that because there are two potential duelists hauling ass to get here before you pack up."

Fred turned back to the table and started to look through the stacks of application forms before he found the correct one. He turned back around and handed Raven the sheet.

"Here you are." Fred said "Might want to hurry the professor in charge is a jerk. Especially to people who he… she? Whatever! Especially to people who IT deems to be 'slackers'" he made air quotes with his fingers "Just head inside and wait your turn. I'll radio to tell them that you're coming."

"Thank you" Raven said bowing slightly. He turned around and walked through the arena doors that the other students had entered into.

"Well that was fun" Fred said to himself as he picked up his radio "hey Crowler, he just checked in. Though expect two more before you pack up. He said something about that."

"Does it sound like I care about two slackers who couldn't make it on time?" an angry voice roared through the small Radio "and call me Doctor Crowler. I have more than earned that title"

"Uh, sure whatever you say boss, I mean Doctor Crowler" Fred replied before he set down the radio and sat back down in his seat

Raven walked through the doors that lead into the arena and was impressed by what he saw. The arena was a giant dome that was divided into four different sections. Each section had a duel going on in it; one had a proctor dueling one guy in a blue trench coat like uniform with spikey black hair and a dueling attitude of someone who was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. Raven hated people like those. They cared for nothing other than themselves and had no respect for anyone, their dueling reflected as much.

Another section of the arena had the beginnings of a duel between a proctor and some guy in a neat gray shirt with black hair that jutted out to the side. With only a few cards on the field and near full life points on both sides. Raven would have loved to watch the duel progress but something stopped him from finding a shady corner with a good view of the duel, that something being a voice over the loud speaker.

"Will Raven Callez please proceed to the proctor judging area for his application duel opponent" the voice said. That wasn't right, it couldn't be. Raven was supposed to go down to an arena section and wait for his proctor there, right?

"There's nothing you can do about it. Just go there and find out what's going on. And remember, now's your moment to shine." a voice said that went unheard to everyone except Raven. "If possible, put a smile on your face. You know the ladies prefer it that way."

Raven turned and looked up at his longtime friend and mentor, Legendary Hero: Phantom the Unseen, who was currently floating beside Raven. Phantom was a spirit; he was also Raven's star monster in his deck. He wore a white coat with gold buttons and small chains. He had a white and gold cape that flowed out behind him and a hat that was shaped in the form of a bird's beak. He wore blue headband that hung down his back and covered all but the end of his golden hair. He had violet eyes much like Raven's and carried a cane in his right hand like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to whack someone with it or use it as it was intended. He practically loved Raven, so much so that he was teaching the boy in the arts of stealth and thievery.

 _I hate you right now._ Raven thought while trying not to laugh at Phantom's joke

"And why would that be? Hmm?" Phantom said smirking

 _You know perfectly well why. You're trying to make me laugh and that would either blow my cover or make me look retarded, depending on the situation._ Raven responded. _in this case it's the latter._

"Oh very astute of you," Phantom responded still smirking at him. "keep this up and you might just make a decent thief one day. Oh and today is a test day, the question: can you keep a straight face under pressure?"

 _Just shut up_ Raven thought as he went to the end of the arena where the proctors were.

When he got there, there were two adults judging each duel and in the front row a person with long pale blond hair that was in a ponytail was sitting. He was wearing a blue jacket, similar to the snob he saw earlier but with ruffled pink stuff that was on his collar, shoulders edges, upper chest, and sleeves. He also had small golden stripes on the top of the shoulders of his shirt. Raven couldn't help but compare the person with one of the old kings looking over his kingdom, watching it all. As soon as Raven stepped near the Proctor area, he saw him and practically jumped out of the seat he was occupying.

"Ah, Raven a pleasure to meet you" he said holding out their hand "I am Doctor Crowler, the one in charge of this pitiful event."

 _Well it seems the man outside was correct. He is a jerk isn't he?_ Raven thought

"Yes it does appear so" Phantom replied crossing his arms

"It seems that I am at a disadvantage, as you know me by sight and I have never met you before in my life." Raven said "so who am I dueling today? I assume you have given me a suitable opponent as you seem to know so much about me?"

"Quite right. Your opponent will be… no one." Crowler replied

"What!?" Raven nearly yelled

"Oh that's professional" Phantom snickered from behind Raven

"Yes, your opponent will be no one today." Crowler said smiling, an act that was extremely creepy "You do not need to duel today, unless some slacker comes that I need you to put in his or her place. You passed our written exam with flying colors, you have the great Mister Pegasus's approval, and you have a near perfect dueling record in all the tournaments you have participated in. I think you have more than earned the privilege to become an Obelisk Blue without question"

"Thank you, sir. You are most kind" Raven said bowing slightly

"Suck up" Phantom fake coughed nearly causing Raven to laugh outright. But because he knew it was true.

 _Stop doing that._ He thought

"No !" Phantom cackled as he circled behind Crowler and started to salsa dance

"Here is your uniform, Raven" Crowler said handing him a set of folded clothes as Phantom attempted a conga line behind Crowler. The uniform was nothing special, white overcoat and white pants both with blue trim on the edges.

"Is there anything else you need, sir?" Raven asked wanting nothing more than to leave the area and find a nice quiet, shady corner to watch the rest of the duels from before phantom could make him look crazy.

"No, you can go." Crowler said turning back to his seat

Raven finally did find his corner. From there he watched all the duels and heard the commentary of the other applicants. He spent the next hour standing in the corner. The only thing that stopped him was the arrival of two boys and the ire of Doctor Crowler.

* * *

 _Thirty minutes earlier._

* * *

Jaden Yuki was having an unpleasant day. It had started out normally enough with Jaden sleeping on the bottom bunk of his and his twin brother's, Jason, room. After that it all went downhill. He had over slept, which had caused Jason to literally drag him off the bed.

* * *

"Jason!" Jaden complained after being dumped onto the floor. "What was that for?"

Jason started to make hand signs; this was his primary form of communication as he was born a mute.

"I don't care if Inferno Wing herself told you to do it; you could at least show some remorse." Jaden said after watching Jason's hands and seeing an almost gleeful smile on his face, or what portion of his face could be seen. Half of his face was covered in bandages, the mementos of an accident that had left him scarred for life and partially brain damaged.

"Jaden I told him to drag him to drag you out of your bed because you're late." Yubel said. . Yubel was a demoness. She had sickly pink, grey, and black skin, large black and pink bat like wings. She had mismatched eyes and hair. She also had a third vertical eye in between her regular ones. She was floating next to Jaden with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face.

Yubel was Jaden's teacher in his powers. Jaden was the reincarnation of the supreme king and Yubel was the only one who had any idea of what he could do. She would teach him to control his powers and every time he mastered something she would reward him by giving him another "Evil Hero" monster that Jaden's past life used. She was the only reason that Jaden hadn't kill someone yet.

"Late? Late for what?" Jaden asked while rubbing his eyes

"Nothing serious, just the admission tests for Duel Academy." Yubel said and waited for that to click in the boy's brain.

"That's today?! Crap!" he said leaping up off the floor and throwing on his cloths.

He tossed Jason two deck boxes after getting dressed.

"You using the Coopers today or the Heroes?" he asked his brother

Jason stuck the deck boxes in his pockets and made a few signs with his hands.

"Cool. Let's get going" Jaden said sticking his own deck box loosely into his pocket and running out the door.

* * *

So now they were running as fast as they could to get to the arena that the application duels for Duel Academy were taking place. They were running so fast that Jaden's brown hair and dark coat and red shirt that he wore underneath were flapping in the nonexistent wind. Jason was in a similar situation except his bandages that were securely fastened to his face. They were heading down a park path with trees on either side of them.

"Better hurry if you want to make it, boys" Yubel said while floating slightly behind Jaden and in front of Jason

"Yubel with all due respect, please stop talking." Jaden panted while still running "I can't focus on what you're saying and running nonstop at the same time"

"It's funny how whenever someone says 'with all due respect' they always mean 'kiss my ass'. I can see you're busy so I'll just go back into the deck. Don't forget to use me in your duel today" she said smiling evilly

"That's not what I meant at all, Yubel. I promise to use you if I draw you, sound fair?" Jaden replied smiling at his friend and mentor of the gentle darkness as she nodded and disappeared into his deck box that was sitting loosely in his pocket.

Suddenly something white dropped down from the trees right in front of Jaden, causing Jaden to run straight into him. The two colliding caused Jaden's deck box to fly out of his pocket and his cards to flutter everywhere. Jaden picked himself up and started to run around and collect his cards, as he did so he noticed that his were not the only cards flying everywhere. He groaned and continued to pick up the cards.

"Watch where you're jumping bro" Jaden said as he finished gathering up all of his cards.

"Apologies, I am in a hurry. I was not watching as carefully as I should have been." The boy said as he dusted himself off and collected his cards. "I assume you are heading to the arena where the application duels for Duel Academy are taking place? You should hurry time's almost up. See you there" and with that he disappeared in a swirl of golden cards.

Jaden turned to Jason and said "Please tell me you saw that too." Jason stared at the spot where the boy had stood then shook his head and started making signs with his hands.

" **Yes I saw it but we need to hurry. Like the guy said time is almost up.** " He 'said'.

"Right!" Jaden said as he took off running with Jason close behind him.

When they reached the arena they climbed the wall and fence to find a guy sitting behind a desk full of stacks of paper looking at them with his eyebrows raised expectantly. They flopped down onto the ground, panting heavily.

"Well you boys made in the nick of time." he said glancing at his watch "yup looks like another minute or two and you two would've had to sit this year out and apply next year."

"Jaden… and… Jason… Yuki… are… present" Jaden panted from his spot on the ground.

The man turned his attention to one of the stacks and started to shuffle through it. He finally pulled out two sheets of paper and walked over to where the boys were still lying. He helped them up and handed the sheets to them

"Well Jaden and Jason. Why don't you head inside and wait until your name is called" he gestured to the door "I'll radio you in"

They entered the arena and looked around. They were both awed at the skill of the duelists there, but one duel in particular caught their attention. It was between a duel proctor and the same guy in a neat grey shirt that Raven had seen earlier, not that the boys knew that. The proctor had the upper hand with two monsters on the field but his life points were pretty low while the boy had a Vorse Raider, a face down, and more life points than the proctor.

"Ok multiple choice. You're staring down two monsters that can wipe away your life points in one maybe two attacks. Do you A) throw in the towel B) beg for mercy or C) run home to mommy?" the proctor taunted

"I choose option D) none of the above. I activate my trap card Ring of Destruction" the boy announced

"But that means-" the proctor said shocked

"That's right. I choose a monster and we both take damage equal to its ATK points." The boy announced as he activated his card "So now I will ask you a question similar to the one you asked me. You're faced with a trap card that will deplete your life points in the next three seconds. Do you A) beg for mercy B) wet yourself or C) run home to mommy?" the student said smugly just before the trap in question destroyed Vorse Raider and depleted the Proctors life points and reduced his own.

"Well done applicant. Welcome to the academy" the proctor said

"Thank you honorable Proctor" the student said bowing

In the stands three boys in blue uniforms were watching the duels. The one on the right turned his head to the person in the center of the trio, whom he obviously considered his leader. He had brown hair and glasses on that wouldn't look out of place in a nerd's fantasy dream.

"Hey that guy's pretty good, isn't he Chazz?" he said stupidly.

"It seems the rumors about him being the best in the first years were not exaggerating, huh Chazz?" said the one on the left

"He's a punk" said the guy in the center, Chazz, with his eyes closed and his hands behind his head "We went to prep school for years to get here. There's no way that some walk in could be better than me. I'll show him what true dueling is and he'll learn the hard way, the Chazz is not to be messed with"

Jaden, who been walking behind them trying to find a good seat to watch the duels from, heard this and disagreed. Sure the guy seemed smug at the end but Jaden thought that he would be a fun guy to duel. He walked up behind the group of boys and decided to take "the Chazz" down a peg or two.

"Do you always refer to yourself in the third person? Cause if you do that's kind of weird bro," Jaden said causing the group to jump slightly with Jason standing beside him nodding. Chazz was shocked. Who did this slacker think he was, talking to The Chazz like that?

"What do you mean two more?! Why asn't I informed of this sooner?!" came Crowler's angry roaring to the man who'd answered Fred's final radio call somewhere in the Proctor portion of the stands.

"Well mister-"he said before being cut off by Crowler

"Did you just call me mister?"

"I'm sorry, miss-"

"I'll have you know that I have a PHD in dueling. So I have more than earned the title of Doctor thank you very much." Crowler snarled

"Fine, _Doctor_ Crowler you were informed of this. Fred said that two applicants were still on their way" the man sighed

"Very well, let's test them," Crowler said smiling evilly

* * *

Six years ago, Crowler had been searching for new recruits for the academy at a tournament that was a few miles out of town. It was the final round and one ten year old had been thrashing everyone he went against. He used a form of heroes that Crowler had never seen before but the fact remained he worked well with them, swarming the field with low level monster then summoning higher level monsters once the opponent could do nothing else. This boy had won and Crowler had heard nothing else of him locally. That is until three months ago when he had run a check on one of the applicants for Duel Academy and found a deck profile in the boy's record that matched the winner of that tournament's exactly.

* * *

 _And I know just who to use_ Crowler thought as he returned pack to the present

"Sir. Who will the boys' proctors be and what decks shall they use?" one of the judges asked

"Leave that to me" Crowler said as he walked out of the judging area chuckling "would you find Raven for me, I have need of his services." He called over his shoulder

"Uh, yes sir" the judge said not liking where this was going. This could very ugly very fast.

"Would Raven Callez please proceed to the proctor area of the stands." A voice said over the loud speakers causing Raven to jump out of his thoughts.

He had been going over something Phantom had once told him about his past, something about a dark king or something. His cards were somehow connected to his heroes' past or at least, the past that his Heroes represented. He got up and went to the area where Crowler was waiting for him.

"You asked for me sir" Raven said while praying that Phantom would quit his test before he got into trouble

"Don't worry about that. Focus on what is in front of you." he said from behind Raven

"Yes, I did. There are two slackers that I need help defeating" Crowler said "and since I don't want to get on the chancellor's bad side by beating up two applicants in a row, I need your help."

"Ok who will I be dueling?" Raven asked, utterly bored

"You will duel the applicant, Jason Yuki, while I will duel his twin, Jaden." Crowler replied grinning in the victory that he was sure would come

"Is there anything I need to get, a duel disk perhaps?" Raven said

"No need I've taken the liberty of procuring a duel-blazer for you" Crowler said handing over the bulky machine "now I've got the first duel, just wait on the sidelines for your turn" he turned and left for the arena.

"Will Jaden Yuki please proceed to dueling arena 3" the voice over the loud speaker said

Jaden walked into the arena and looked around for the proctor that would be his opponent. What he saw surprised him somewhat, a man with blond hair that was tied in a ponytail wearing a blue uniform.

 _Ok Slacker, get prepared to witness true dueling_ Crowler thought

 _Huh so the school mascot is someone that you can't even tell whether it's a boy or a girl, interesting_ Jaden thought

"I am Doctor Vellian Crowler, department chair of techniques here at Duel Academy and head of the Obelisk Blue Dorm, and I will be your duel proctor today" the man said

"Really? With that get up I thought you were the school mascot or something" Jaden said causing the people in the stands to chuckle and agree slightly.

"I'll have you know that I have a PHD in dueling!" Crowler snapped at him

"Uh, OK then."

"Let's just get this over with. Duel vest on!" Crowler shouted activating his dueling device and grabbing his five cards as the duel vest shot them out.

"Nice gear, Teach" Jaden said as he drew his five cards from his duel disk "now what do I have to do to get one of those?"

"Oh, not much. Just get extremely high marks and a teacher's approval" Crowler replied nonchalantly

"Oh well can't win them all" Jaden said disappointedly "but for now, get you game on"

* * *

Back in the corner of the stands Raven saw it all as he hid in the shadows. He was standing behind three people with them not even knowing he was there, a feat that Phantom was most impressed with. One was a tall, blue haired boy in a uniform similar to the one Crowler had given him. Another was girl with short dirty blond hair in a white and blue uniform. While the final observer was a girl with shoulder length pink hair and was also wearing the white and blue uniform that Raven assumed meant that they were in the Obelisk Blue dorm.

"Hey Zane, do you think this kid is good if they're letting Crowler duel him?" the girl with blond hair asked

"No, Alexis, I think that this runt pissed Crowler off, and in a big way. Otherwise Crowler wouldn't waste his time with him." the blue haired boy responded

"Zane's right, Alexis, Crowler wouldn't bother if the kid hadn't pissed him off in some way." The pink haired girl said

"Ok Asami you've made your point. Let's just enjoy the show and hope we get to see the rare card that Crowler's supposedly got stashed in his deck." Alexis said

* * *

"This should be quick don't you think Chazz?" the crony with glasses said

"Yes it should. There's no way a slacker like that could defeat a pro like Crowler" Chazz said smirking and sitting forward in his seat

* * *

Crowler drew again starting the duel.

Crowler: 4000

Jaden: 4000

"I'll go first." Crowler stated "first I activate double summon." A green bordered card materialized in front of him. "And summon Ancient Gear Soldier in ATK mode." A greyish brown robot with a machine gun for an arm appeared and aimed it's gun at Jaden (Atk:1300/Def:1300)

"That's nice, teach. But don't you think it's a little weak?" Jaden asked

"Oh you want strong do you? Then allow me to continue. I use the effect of a monster in my hand to special summon Ancient Gear, but it won't be staying around for long because I tribute them both to summon Ancient Gear Golem" a tiny robot appeared then shattered along with Ancient Gear Soldier. A giant robot formed from the shattered images, it was easily twenty feet high and looked like it could take a sizable chunk out of Jaden's life points. (Atk:3000/ Def:3000)

"Just had to open my big mouth, didn't I?" Jaden muttered

"I end my turn with a facedown" Crowler said after looking over his hand. The reverse card appeared in front of him.

"Guess you guys were right, Crowler's going after this guy with a vengeance" Alexis said as she shook her head

"It's my move and I… what the! These aren't my cards" Jaden nearly shouted as he looked at his hand for the first time in the game. His shout was clearly audible throughout the stands. As Raven heard this, he paled in the shadows.

 _Oh no. things could get ugly very fast if what I think happened just happened_ he thought as he pulled out his deck box and started to go through 'his' cards _shit, shit, shit. This is not good. I just hope he doesn't draw it_

"Well, this duel just got interesting" Zane said in his usual monotone

"And very bad for the new kid" Asami said leaning forwards while holding onto the railing

"This duel is over" Chazz laughed to himself

Jason, who was sitting a few rows away, couldn't help but agree more

"Oh well nothing I can do about it now. So I guess I'll start with this card To the Skies" Jaden said as a green spell card appeared in front of him. "With this card I can return one card on the field to it's owner's hand, and I choose your Golem." Every one watched in awe as the massive robot was surrounded by tons of golden cards and when the cards stopped flying around the golem it returned to Crowler's hand.

"Now I summon Elemental Hero: Burstinatrix in ATK mode" jaden announced. The hero appeared and looked ready to roast someone with the fireballs that she was juggling in her hands. (Atk:1200/Def:800)

"Sir, there are monsters in your deck that I don't recognize. Was this intentional?" she said turning to look at Jaden. Like when Phantom spoke to Raven, no one could hear her or see anything unusual during duels.

 _No it wasn't. It was an accident. But right now let's focus on the duel at hand._ Jaden thought

"Now Burstinatrix attack him directly with Burst-fire" Jaden commanded while pointing at Crowler. Burstinatrix stopped juggling the fire balls and threw them and Crowler who visibly flinched at the sight of the holographic fire balls flying straight at his face.

Crowler: 2800

Jaden: 4000

"Now I throw down a face down and end my turn" Jaden stated. The reversed card appeared

 _No, no, no. Come on, please, be in here_ Raven thought as he continued to search through his deck.

"And mine begins." Crowler said drawing his card "I will start by activating Ancient Gear Castle, which gives all my Ancient Gear monsters 300ATK points." A giant fortress rose out of the ground behind Crowler

"This isn't good" Jaden said has he watched the fortress rise higher and higher.

Crowler was practically dancing with joy. "Next I activate Cybernetic Fusion Support. With this card I can banish the Ancient Gear monsters from my graveyard and my golem from my hand to fusion summon a monster, all for the low price of half my life points. Now rise Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem!" a giant robotic centaur appeared on the field (Atk:4400/Def:3400) "and with the power boost from my castle he's unbeatable" (Atk:4700) "now attack his Burstinatrix with Mechanized Destruction"

Burstinatix raised her arms as if to defend herself as the giant monster punched her with all of it's might.

"I have failed you my king" she said right before the robot hit her.

Her hologram shattered and the corresponding gust of wind nearly blew Jaden off of his feat.

Crowler: 1400

Jaden: 500

"I end my turn. I hope you enjoyed your time here because after this turn you're through." Crowler laughed

"A duel isn't over till the last card is played" Jaden said determinedly

* * *

"Well at least he had a fun duel. There's no way he's getting out of this one. Especially if he's not even using his whole deck" Asami said

"It would appear so but I wouldn't count him out just yet" a voice said assuredly from behind them. They all jumped and turned. They saw a boy who they hadn't even seen arrive. They also instantly noticed that the boy's eyes were piercingly violet.

"And why would you say that? You heard him; he isn't using his full deck. It got mixed up with someone else's." Zane said surprised at the new comer's sureness

"Because it's my deck that his got mixed up with. Some of his deck is in mine and some of mine is in his. And there is only one card that could possibly save him right now and it is currently in his deck, he just has to draw it" the boy said as, unbeknownst to them, Phantom looked through a deck of gold colored cards

"And how exactly did your decks get mixed up?" Alexis asked

"We ran into each other, dropped our decks, and had to clean them up quickly to get here on time" the boy replied seriously turning his head away from her

"And you didn't think to check to see if you had all of your cards?" Asami asked surprised

"Like I said we were in a hurry" The boy growled turning his head to glare at her. This caused her to notice a small symbol in the pupil of his eye

Asami jumped back a little in surprise. The symbol looked like a bird's beak on an old fashioned mask.

* * *

Jaden was looking over his hand. He had never seen cards like these in his entire life. They were like nothing he ever used they worked too dependently on each other. Half of the cards in his hand were useless because he hadn't gotten the right cards.

"Ok it's my draw" he said and drew his card. Great what is this card? A monster? Jaden figured he should play it seeing as he had nothing left to lose. "I summon uh… Experienced Hero: Poison Blaze in DEF mode." A woman with red hair appeared on Jaden's side of the field. She was wearing a black shirt that didn't even cover her stomach along with feathers that were attached to her shoulders. She had a long black and gold skirt that flowed out behind her and she was carrying a long staff with a blue jewel set on top. (Atk:1900/Def:1000)

She turned to look at who she thought was Raven, only to see it was not her usual summoner but someone who radiated not only a dark aura but also a light one. She thought it was similar to Luminous.

"Who are you and where is my friend?" she asked

 _I don't know where he is but his and my decks got mixed together so your help would be appreciated_ Jaden thought to her

She looked into the stands and saw Raven, he nodded slightly "Very well" she said looking over the field "when he attacks you, activate my effect. after that you're on your own"

 _I can live with that_ Jaden thought

"That thing can't stand up to my monster. You wasted your turn" Crowler taunted

* * *

"He's right. That monster is by no means strong enough to destroy that Golem" Alexis said and turned to Raven "that wasn't the card you were talking about, was it?"

"Actually it was. He wins next turn." Raven replied smiling never taking his eyes off the duel below him, not letting Asami get another look at his Eye of Phantom.

"How?" Asami asked still trying to get him to look at her again, if only to make sure she wasn't seeing things

"Watch and see. If he's as good as I think he is, he'll know how to win" Raven said

* * *

"I start my turn and your last few minutes in this academy's roster" Crowler said as he drew his card "hmm, nothing to do here other than to destroy you and end this duel. Ultimate Ancient Gear Golem attack with Mechanized Destruction!"

"Not so fast, Teach. I activate Poison Blaze's effect. Once per turn I can stop one of your monsters from attacking me."

Poison Blaze raised her staff. A purple mist started to spew out of the jewel. Crowler's Golem started to attack and connected with the mist which had started to cover the field. As soon the Golem touched the mist it shuddered to a stop and retreated back over to Crowlers side of the field.

"So you live for one more turn. No matter I can end this any time I want" Crowler said "I end my turn"

"My move!" Jaden said drawing his card "I tribute Poison Blaze to summon Legendary Hero: Luminous the Shattered Light" Poison Blaze shattered and a man appeared. He had grey hair and was wearing a white robe with gold trim. He was wearing leather gloves that covered his fore arms. Above his left hand a ball of light was floating. In his other hand he held a double sided ornamented staff. (Atk:2000/Def:2000)

He turned to Jaden and looked at him for two seconds then said

"Yes I will fight for you, supreme king" this caused Jaden to take a step back in surprise, it wasn't every day that a monster saw him for what he was right away.

* * *

Raven heard this and frowned thinking, why did that sound familiar? Wait! The supreme king, also known as the black mage according to phantom, was the enemy of his heroes. But he was dead right? The heroes had sealed him away for forever. So how could he be here?

"I don't get it. Why is he called 'the shattered light'" Asami asked drawing Raven out of his thoughts.

He had stopped Eye of Phantom as soon as Jaden summoned Luminous, so he looked at her and said

"Because Luminous has two forms, light and darkness. Jaden's won by the way. Nothing Crowler can do about it anymore"

* * *

"Now I activate his effect I can destroy one of your monsters and gain life equal to half its ATK points" Jaden said as luminous' orb rose up and shot a single beam of light at Crowler's monster. The giant robot shattered and the beam shot towards Jaden "now Luminous attack Crowler directly!" Luminous jumped towards Crowler unopposed and hit him with his staff.

Crowler: 0

Jaden: 2850(winner)

* * *

The holograms faded away and Raven moved away from the rail. The fact that Luminous had called Jaden the supreme king troubled him. Phantom would need to explain in greater detail about what had happened during that time. Raven only hoped that history as he remembered it wouldn't repeat itself.

"Impossible. It's a fluke. There's no way a slacker like that could ever defeat Doctor Crowler, especially if they weren't even using their full deck." Chazz said in shock from his seat. Jason, who'd been watching in a mixture of fear and amazement, suddenly leapt up out of his chair and would have cheered if he could have.

"Will Jason Yuki please proceed to dueling arena 4" the voice over the loud speaker said

"That's my cue" Raven muttered and went down the steps to the arena

"There's another one. It's bad enough that you got in now we have to let your gimpy brother" Chazz said looking at Jaden, who had just walked out of the arena and wished his twin good luck.

Suddenly everyone in the immediate area felt the temperature drop several degrees and it get slightly darker in the area. Chazz and his cronies looked around and found the source, it was Jaden. Chazz had no idea what had just happened but his instinct told him to cower and hope that Jaden's rage went away. Jaden was so furious that he didn't even notice that he had dropped the temperature in the area. No one spoke about Jason that way, not even this stuck up brat who thought he was being funny.

"Say that again. I dare you." He snarled before sitting down a few seats away and watching his brother enter his section of the arena

"Well he's protective of his brother, isn't he?" Alexis muttered to herself as she walked past the conversation "that's interesting."

* * *

Jason was standing in the arena waiting for his opponent.

 _It's probably going to be Crowler, seeing how he acted when he dueled._ _He'll probably want revenge on Jaden for beating him. And what better way to get revenge that to clobber his injured little brother._ He thought

His opponent walked in and Jason was surprised to see that it wasn't Crowler but a student, he thought the boy looked familiar but he couldn't tell where from.

* * *

Jaden was surprised. The person who was Jason's opponent looked like he could be a first year at the academy. Chazz looked at Jason's opponent and recognized him instantly, Raven Callez, Hero duelist extraordinaire. What made him so special was that he always dueled with a set of Heroes that no one had seen before, the Novice heroes, Experienced heroes, and Legendary heroes. He also didn't appear much in tournaments. Chazz's brothers had been trying to find the guy for years, to employ him if nothing else. In the proctor area of the stands Crowler was grinning from ear to ear. There was no way that that punk could beat Raven, even if his brother _had_ gotten lucky.

* * *

"Welcome to the arena. Apparently I am to be your proctor." The boy said "My name is Raven. If you have anything you wish to declare now would be the time to declare it." he waited for a second "no? Very well let's get started"

* * *

In the stands Alexis joined up with her friends. When she looked at the arena and saw Raven she asked

"Isn't that the kid that got his deck mixed up with Jaden's?"

"Yes it is, how very observant of you, Alexis" Zane said "this should be interesting"

"Well, why is he dueling as a proctor?" Asami asked "Isn't he a student?"

"He is young enough be a student. But I believe that this is Crowler's doing." Zane stated "It would appear that for once Crowler is being smart and not taking immediate revenge on Jaden for beating him and letting another person take on Jason"

* * *

"Now, as the saying goes, it's time to duel" Raven said as he activated the duel vest Crowler had given him

Raven: 4000

Jason: 4000

"I'll take the first move if you don't mind. I summon Elemental Hero: Voltic in DEF mode" the hero in purple appeared with lightning running up and down his suit appeared in front of Raven and kneeled into defense position (Atk:1000/Def:1500) "I'll end with two face downs" the two cards appeared "your go"

Jason drew his card and played a card on his duel disk. A person appeared with dark armor all over his body. (Atk:1000/Def:1500)

Phantom appeared next to Raven and said

"That monster is dark. I'm surprised it's considered a hero."

 _An interesting point, Phantom_ Raven thought

"Kid, Jason, if your too shy to talk, I can get a pad of paper or something. Merely so I can understand what you're doing as it is customary for the players to speak during their duels" Raven said with a slightly confused look on his face.

Jason held up a finger and reached into his back pocket, drew out a notepad and a pen then wrote

"Thank you for not yelling at me to speak. As it happens I cannot talk, I am mute. The monster I just played is called 'Elemental Hero: Shadow Mist'. Next I play the spell card Mask Change this allows me to tribute Shadow Mist and fusion summon a monster called 'Masked Hero: Dark Law' then Shadow Mist's effect activates allowing me to add one Elemental hero monster from my deck to my hand. I choose Elemental Hero: Lady Heat."

He held the pad out to Raven, who read it while Jason activated the cards he had written. Shadow Mist jumped up and a suit of ebony colored armor appeared and covered him. He landed and his stats went up. (Atk:2400/Def:1800) Jason wrote on his pad again.

"Say hello to Masked Hero: Dark Law." and showed Raven, who smiled and said.

"Would he be offended if I said no?" this caused Jason to laugh silently. He wrote again on his pad.

"Funny. I attack with Dark Law." the black hero leaped at Raven's hero and destroyed it.

"Dark Law's effect activates and removes your monster from the game instead of sending it to the graveyard. I end with two face downs."

The two reversed cards materialized in front of him.

Jaden was watching the duel with interest now that he had found someone who seemed to have the rest of his deck. He wanted to see how good of a duelist this guy was.

* * *

"What's going on down there?" Asami asked

"I think that either Jason is too shy to speak or can't speak at all" Alexis said trying to see what was going on with the paper pad.

"That would be the most likely conclusion" Zane said

"I guess it's my turn then" Raven said as he drew "I summon Elemental Hero: Avian in Def mode. Then I end my turn with a face down."

The bird based hero appeared and then kneeled with it's arms crossed in front of Raven. (Atk:1000/Def:1000) Jason drew then played a monster on the field.

"I summon Elemental Hero: Stratos in ATK mode. His effect activates when he's summoned allowing me to add a hero monster to my hand. I choose Elemental Hero: Bubbleman." A blue and silver hero with mechanical wings on his back appeared.

"Next I play another Mask Change spell card. To summon out Masked Hero: Blast"

Stratos leaped up into the air and green armor surrounded him. (Atk:2200/Def:1800)

"I use his effect to destroy your face down by paying 500 life points."

Raven: 4000

Jason: 3500

"Next I play Form Change to change my Dark Law into Masked Hero: Anki" dark law leapt into the air and his armor peeled off to reveal a form of a man made out of yellow light. A new set of ebony colored him and he fell to the ground. (Atk:2800/Def:1200)

"Now I equip him with the Spell cards Megamorph and Assault Armor. This allows me to double his ATK points so long as my life points are lower than yours, I also tribute assault armor which allows Anki to attack twice in one battle phase. Then I activate Anki's effect which allows him to attack you directly with half his ATK points." As Raven had been reading this Jason had been activating his cards.

"Good game." Raven said as he did the math in his head "I do believe this gets you into the academy

Jason wrote for the final time on his pad

"You too."

He signaled for Anki to attack. Anki leapt into the air and turned into smoke before appearing before Raven and slashing him with his holographic claws.

Raven: 0

Jason: 3500 (winner)

"Well that was fast." Phantom said "you did well, considering the circumstances. But we will review your strategy for your non-main decks"

Raven groaned.

"I hate reviewing strategy" he complained once Jason was out of earshot.

* * *

"A two turn kill. Not unheard of but still very rare." Zane said before walking away from the railing.

"Those two are going to make this year interesting" Asami said

"Which two?" Alexis asked

"Jaden and Jason, of course. Though now that I think about it, Raven might be interesting as well." Asami replied

* * *

"How the... The gimp got in as well?!" Chazz said furious.

"He may be tooo shy to talk but you have to admit, he is a good duelist" Glasses said thoughtfully, something that was almost unheard of from him.

Jason high fived his brother and started to make signs with his hands.

"Oh right I need to find the person who has the rest of my deck don't I?" Jaden said after watching Jason's hand for a few seconds.

"That actually won't be necessary, as he has found you." Raven said coming up behind Jason with both hands full of neatly stacked cards. He offered his right hand out towards Jaden and said "Interesting deck you have, sir. May I please have the rest of mine back?"

"Uh, yeah. Sure, bro." Jaden said as he took the offered cards and started to look through his deck drawing out cards here and there. After a minute he too had two stacks of cards in his hands. "Here you go. Neat deck by the way, where'd you get those cards?"

Raven chuckled and said

"You two aren't the only ones who can ask Mister Pegasus for favors." And walked off towards the exit.

Jason turned to Jaden and started to gesture to Raven and make hand signs

"He's the one you ran into this morning, that's how your decks got mixed up."

"Ok that makes sense but how did he know so much about us and how did he vanish in the cards?" Jaden asked no one in particular while watching Raven climb the stairs and head outside. "Well one thing's for certain, this is going to be a good year"


	2. Chapter 2 Raccoons, Heroes, and Memories

**Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason and Asami belong to SuperNeos2. The classes Raven cards are based off of belong to Nexon Korea. The only thing I own is Raven and his card ideas.**

 **A/N: sorry for the delay i had to do somestuff irl that made it hard for me to write this.**

 **A/N 2.0: If you want to look at the images of the cards I made for Raven, they are all on my Deviant art account. I will leave a link to the first card on my profile page.**

 **A/N 3.0: I would like to thank Godsofancientpast for beta reading this chapter. You've done a great job buddy. Also I left several references in this chapter. He, or she, who finds them and puts them into a review first wins something, I haven't decided what it is yet.**

Chapter Two

Raccoons, Heroes, and Memories

Raven looked up at the castle that was his dorm for the next ten months. It was a giant citadel like building with a blue roof. It had three to four floors with pavilions and other sections branching off to the side. From the looks of it you would assume some wealthy snob lived there.

"Well Mercedes, this is your area of expertise. Why don't you come on out and give your old friend a hand?" Raven said looking down at the deck box at his waist.

A woman floated out of the deck and looked up at the building. She had waist length blond hair with a fern stem neatly sticking out of it. She had pale blue eyes and long pointed ears that twitched from time to time as she heard things that a human couldn't. Her garb was exquisite silver mail with delicate wire covered gold shoulder pauldrons* and skirt sides. She had a dress like tails coming out of the back of her chest piece. She also wore light, white bracers on her arms and carried twin crossbow looking bowguns in straps on the back of her armor. On her legs she wore white and gold leg guards and black shoes.

"This is the home of the elite," She said approvingly before crossing her arms and adding sourly. "and brats who bought their way in"

"I figured that much out for myself." Raven chuckled "What I was wondering was what you thought on whether we belong here or not?"

"It matters not whether you belong here or not. You are here, you cannot change that." Luminous scolded as his spirit flew out of the deck as a tiny ball of light. The ball of light stopped moving and transformed into his visual form. This caused no disturbance from Raven as he had seen this several time before

"Perhaps you're right" Raven sighed

" _Perhaps_ you should hurry up and get moving. The orientation will begin in two minutes and it's on the other side of the island." Mercedes said turning away from the building to look at him and twitching her ears slightly.

Raven smiled and drew out a golden backed card from a separate deck box that he always wore on his belt. On one side was a red and gold version of Phantom's emblem, on the other it had a very detailed picture of a man dressed like Phantom with cards billowing behind him. Upon seeing the card Mercedes huffed slightly. She didn't like Raven's use of Phantom's skill cards. She thought that they would bring him to a bad end, or something, Raven didn't know for certain.

"I'll get there on time. If I couldn't have, I would've stayed with the group. Besides, this way is so much more fun" Raven said before he activated his Shrouded Flash and disappeared in a flurry of golden cards.

He appeared a few feet away from the main group in a small thicket that well concealed his sudden appearance. He ran out of the thicket and pretended to be out of breath before he walked into the main building with the others. Some of the group looked at him questioningly but most didn't care, he was just a fellow student who had gotten separated from the group and had finally caught up.

Raven sat down in the back row of the auditorium, well away from prying eyes. When everyone was situated a screen in the front of the room turned on with the picture of a man in his late forties or fifties looking at them. He was bald and had a goatee. He wore a red uniform, similar to the ones that Raven had seen some students wearing, but it was slightly darker than normal. Underneath the man's uniform, Raven could spot the top of a yellow button up shirt and a brown tie. Raven thought the man seemed a little too happy to be a teacher, but then the only 'teacher' he had ever had was Aran and she was about as strict as you could get.

"Good morning, and welcome to duel academy, my new students" the man said in a cordial tone. "My name is Chancellor Sheppard, and I am the headmaster here. You are the best and brightest duelist around."

Raven smirked. _If only you knew._ He thought

"Now please, get yourselves to your assigned dorms." The chancellor continued "I'm sure you will find them comfortable."

With that the orientation ended and everyone started to file out and head to their dorms. Raven walked out the door and accepted the PDA that a teacher was handing him. He checked it to make sure it had accepted him as it's owner and went to find a secluded spot for his return trip to the blue dorm via Shrouded Flash.

"Well bro, looks like we're in the red dorm" a familiar voice said to the left of Raven.

He turned and saw Jaden and Jason standing a little ways away. He shook his head and went to find his secluded spot. Vaguely familiar with the color system here Raven couldn't help but feel offended for the boys. One had beaten the headmaster of their precious blue dorm for Pete's sake.

Jaden looked at the map on the PDA that he had been given, then back at the building that the map said was his and Jason's dorm. But the building in question looked like an expanded outhouse not a dorm. It was a two story wooden building with red shingles that were falling off in some places. The wood on the outside of the building was rotted very badly in some places, so much so that the formerly brown wood had turned a sickly yellow.

In their new uniforms they looked more like twins than ever. The only differences were that Jason had his bandages and had procured a blue hat, similar to his star monster's, in an attempt to cover said bandages up.

"I get the feeling that the red dorm isn't rated very high here." Jaden said to Jason as he looked at the building.

Jason stared at the outhouse like building then shook his head sadly.

"Well nothing to do but find our room, right?" Jaden said heading towards the decrepit dorm.

"Looks like this is our room." he said once they had located the correct number. Jason nodded and opened the door. The inside of the room was nothing special just a room with a three tiered bunk bed on it. It had two desks in the corner and a small stove on the far wall.

"Well it's not much but it's something right?" Jaden said smiling and looking at Jason who nodded.

"Umm… excuse me, is this room 24?" a voice said behind them. They turned and saw a small boy with blue hair and perfectly round glasses. "If not then I think I'm lost."

"Nah bro, this is room 24." Jaden said "what's your name?"

"Uh, Syrus. Syrus Truesdale" the blue haired boy said looking nervous

"Well Syrus, allow me, Jaden Yuki, to be the first to welcome you to your room." Jaden said with a perfectly straight face while bowing. Jason kicked his brother's leg lightly and shook his head at his twin's antics. "Oh, right. This is my brother, Jason. I guess we'll be roommates."

"It's a little small for three people, don't you think?" Syrus asked as he looked into the room.

"You and Jason are pretty small." Jaden said earning himself another kick, a little harder this time, in the leg from his brother. "Ok I deserved that." Jason nodded happily.

Jason looked at the bunk bed and laid his PDA on the bottom bunk. Syrus came into the room and set down the backpack that he had been wearing. They all took in the room with varying degrees of disgust. Jaden looked over at one of the desks, it had a duel mat on it, and got an idea.

"Hey, this is duel academy, right?" Jaden asked looking at Jason and Syrus.

"Well yeah. Why do you ask?" Syrus asked

"I ask because if this is duel academy then why don't we find someone to duel?" Jaden said excitedly.

"Because it's the first day and you have no idea where you're going?" Syrus voiced hopefully

"More like because he has no idea what he's getting into." someone said from the door frame.

They all turned and saw a small slightly round boy that had the appearance of a koala in face and hair. He wore the uniform that was the inverted version of the standard red uniform. Upon seeing him, Syrus screamed like a little girl and hid behind Jason. Jaden looked at Syrus for a second in both amusement and confusion then turned to the new comer.

"Hello my name's Jaden Yuki. This is my brother, Jason. And sir Screams-a-lot over here is Syrus" he said chuckling at his joke

"You have no idea what those uniforms you're wearing represent do you?" the boy asked as he walked into the room.

"Of course we do. It means we're in the red dorm." Jaden said

The koala boy laughed sadly at Jaden's naivety.

"That's what I thought too, when I was new here. Here wearing red means you're the worst of the pack. We're called "the red wonders", "Slifer slackers", "Dregs". Take your pick. Either way the meaning is the same. The reds are the lowest of the low, and people don't expect anything from them. So don't expect any respect, no matter what you do. I'm Chumley by the way. My room is right next to your's."

"Well I know what I'm doing this year." Jaden said "I'm going to show this entire school that wearing red doesn't mean you're worthless." Jason nodded in agreement with his brother.

"I wish you luck with that. But you'll have to understand if I don't hold my breath." Chumley said smiling "See you around. I'm going to take a nap now." He left the room with that smile on his face.

Jaden was smiling as well. He grabbed Jason's and Syrus' shoulders and steered them out of the room saying.

"Come on guys let's each find an opponent and throw down." The two boys in his grasp struggled to get out of it.

Raven sat in his room, admiring the view from his balcony window. He had his deck laid out in front of him but he wasn't doing anything to it anymore. He simply watched the raven that had been outside his window for the last few minute continue to peck around the tree for nuts or something.

"Getting comfortable?" someone asked from his door.

Having not heard the door open Raven jumped slightly he turned his head and saw Alexis and Asami standing in his previously closed doorway. He could already hear Phantom berating him for this.

 _Letting a person sneak up on you? What were you thinking? A good thief does not let others dictate who is surprised; he is the one doing the surprising._

Raven pulled himself out of his imaginary scolding and turned his attention to the girls, in his door.

"As I'm sure you are aware there is such a thing as knocking." Raven said coolly while getting up from his floor.

"Yeah there is." Asami agreed "but we have questions for you and nothing better to do."

Raven smiled. He turned his back on the girls and picked his cards off the floor. After selecting two and setting the rest aside he turned back to them. The girls were looking curiously at the cards he now held in his hand.

"Very well, I have nothing pressing at the moment. Ask away" he said causing their attention to return to him and what he had to say. His way of speaking, in itself was odd.

"Why were you acting as a proctor for the Yuki boy yesterday?" Alexis asked immediately

"Because Doctor Crowler asked me to." Raven replied evenly "Next."

"Why did you accept a duel between a dueling pro like yourself and a newbie like Jason?" Asami asked

"Curiosity." Raven said crossing his arms behind his back "Any other questions?"

"Yes, one last one." Asami said "What was that symbol I saw in your eye. During the match between Jaden and Crowler"

Raven looked at the girl appraisingly. He showed no outward reaction but in his head he gave her a small clap. She had finally asked an important question. Not that Raven was going to tell her the answer because of it. You did not trust people fully until you had proof that they were, in fact, trustworthy.

"I'm sorry," he said faking confusion "what are you talking about?"

"Nothing apparently." Asami said looking down hearted

"I'm sorry I could not be of more help to you." Raven said "Is there anything else you wanted?"

"No, nothing." Alexis said before Asami could ask something else "By the way, did you see Chazz?"

Raven looked at her, cocking his head to the side. The name sounded familiar but he couldn't place it. Though the way the girl said it you would think that he was the black mage himself.

"I am unfamiliar with that name." he said "Why do you ask?"

"He's Crowler's pet student, besides you, and he seems to be out to get those Yuki kids. That's why." Asami said "He's furious that they got into the academy."

"Well why don't we put this kid in his place" Raven said smirking and raising the two cards he had drawn out of his deck with his index and middle fingers to where they were next to his head.

He threw them accurately at the two girls. Surprised at his actions, they reached out for the card that was flying closest to them and caught them almost in sync.

"Legendary Hero: Aran the Warrior of the North?" Asami asked looking down at her card "what's this?"

"That is you." Raven said simply as he covertly drew a card out of his skill deck box and activated his Eye of Phantom. "Or am I mistaken that I am in the presence of a warrior duelist?"

"I really don't think you have any right to know." Asami replied crossly

"Legendary Hero: Mercedes the swift wind?" Alexis asked looking at the card she had caught

"That one represents you." Raven said looking and gesturing at the card "But I will be wanting those back." The girls walked over to him and gave him the cards, both wondering what that was about.

Raven put the cards back onto the stack he had set aside. The girl were still looking at him oddly he knew but he'd had time to activate and use the Eye of Phantom.

"Chazz is about to confront the Yuki's at the arena in the forest. You might want to hurry if you want to stop them from dueling."

He turned his back on them, slipping the detection based card back into the deck box. He heard the girls sprint out of the room without another word. He drew out another card from the deck box, activated it, and watched as the golden cards whirl winded around him. They stopped spinning suddenly and he was no longer in the room.

"Hey guys, I found a duel arena" Jaden yelled out to Jason and Syrus

"That's great Jay, but are we even allowed to be here?" Syrus asked as he ran up to Jaden.

Jaden hadn't necessarily liked the nickname but he ran with it to not hurt the small boy's feelings. Jason on the other hand had taken to it instantly and was now practically insisting that he call Jaden that when they spoke to each other. But being as shy as he was around people who weren't Jaden he had yet to ask if Syrus had come up with one for him as well.

The arena was one of the best the boys had seen. It was a smaller version of the arenas used in the famed Duelist Kingdom tournament, courtesy of mister Pegasus himself. It had a few benches on the sidelines but other than that it was just a dueling arena. Around them was a lush forest, one of many that were on the island. The trees were tall and had many low and high branches that one could stand on quite easily, if one were so inclined to do so.

"Hey, Jason, care to throw down?" Jaden asked. The boy nodded and started to run for the other end of the arena.

"Not so fast, you Slifer Slacker" an unpleasant voice said from behind Jason.

A trio of familiar blue clad people walked out of the forest surrounding the arena. It was Chazz and his cronies. The cronies were both grinning maliciously at them, obviously ready to torment them in some way or another. Syrus looked at them and squeaked slightly. While Jaden glared at them, silently daring them to pull something.

"This is Obelisk Blue territory. No slackers are allowed here." The boy with glasses said before he honed in on Jason "And you, wearing one of our hats like you are up to our level."

Jason had started to back away from Glasses as soon as he had addressed him and was now up against the wall of the dueling arena cowering slightly. Jaden saw this and instantly got angry.

"Hey! Why don't you leave my brother alone and get the hell out of here!" he yelled angrily clinching his fists "And just because he's in red doesn't mean he's a bad duelist. Look at me, I went up against your dorm's head master and beat him without even using my full deck."

"Shove off, Slifer trash!" The other crony nearly screamed "You beat Crowler by a fluke and everyone knows it."

"Enough!" Chazz said stepping towards Jaden and Jason "If you want to prove that you're not completely worthless then I propose this; we have a tag duel. You and your gimp of a brother versus me and one of my friends."

"Why would you want one of your cronies?" a voice said from the trees "They don't know how to duel. Why not make the duel interesting?"

"Who said that?" Glasses asked furious

"Oh nobody." the voice laughed "Just a voice in your head."

"For a voice in my head you sound pretty sane to me." Glasses said searching for the source of the voice

"That's what they all say." the voice laughed from a completely different direction

Chazz stopped Glasses from talking more by saying.

"All right then, how do we make this more interesting?"

"Change up the teams." The voice answered "Chazz and Jaden versus myself and Jason. Oh, wait, our time's up… too bad." And with that Raven jumped of the branch he had been standing on and walked into the clearing.

"What's going on here?" Alexis angrily asked as she and Asami walked into the clearing

Jason and Syrus were gawking at the girls as they walked closer. They were both blushing slightly. Raven saw Syrus lean over to whisper something to Jason, who had slowly made his way over to his brother while Raven had been messing with Glasses. The two boys fist bumped and Jason started to nod. Jaden saw this and shook his head in amusement. Jason was still the silent Casanova he saw. Even though Jason had long since given up on a girlfriend he was always acting as a silent observer with any girl he found attractive. It was one of the many things on a long list of stuff Jaden was trying to change about his brother.

"Ah… girls," Chazz said "come to watch me squash these slackers, did you?"

"No Chazz" Alexis said "We came to tell you that the welcome dinner will start soon. Raven you too." Asami was staring at Raven wondering how he had gotten here so fast. They had to run all the way here and they only just made it, Raven looked like he had been here the entire time. She looked away from Raven and looked at Chazz.

"Really Chazz? Picking on a kid simply because he got into the academy, or is it because his brother beat Crowler? Either way that's low." She said heatedly

Chazz ignored her and walked off saying "let's go, 'till next time, Dregs."

"Don't mind him. He's a jerk. Not all Obelisks are blue supremacists like him. I'm sorry he went after you." Asami said

"It's fine." Jaden said for Jason "Besides me and Jason would have creamed him just like he creamed you." He gestured to Raven as he said this.

Raven smiled inwardly, amused at Jaden confidence in his brother's skills.

"If I am correct we still have a welcome dinner to go to, or was that a lie to get rid of Chazz?" he asked to Alexis and Asami.

"We do." Alexis replied "You guys should get going too. The Slifer welcome dinner will start soon."

"Well, as you said, we got to go." Jaden said as the three slifers got into running positions. "Hey what are your names?"

"My name is Raven Callez" he said inclining his head to the brown haired boy

"Alexis Rhodes" Alexis said smiling as the boys started running

"Asami Elric" the emerald eyed pinkette yelled after the running boys

Once the boys waved good bye and were lost from sight the girls turned to Raven and each grabbed an arm and literally dragged him behind them to the obelisk dorm. Raven was, understandably, surprised to say the least, though shocked came closer to the mark.

"What's this for?" he complained as he was dragged down the path

"Nothing." Asami laughed "We're just making sure you don't disappear on us like last time."

Seeing no way out of the predicament, Raven sighed and resigned himself to a night of teasing by Aran, and probably Luminous as well. He slumped down and waited for the trip to end.

"Jaden and Jason are interesting aren't they?" Asami asked once they were close to the dorm

"Definitely." Alexis replied smiling

"As enjoyable as it is to sit here and listen to you two talk about the boys, can you let me go? I _can_ walk for myself." Raven said from in between them causing them to look down at him then at each other before grinning evilly and doing exactly as he asked and dropping him on his butt. "Gee thanks. You guys are great, you know that right?"

"Come on, we're late" Alexis said as she and Asami took off in the direction of the castle like dorm.

"This is our welcome Dinner?" one of the new Slifers asked in shock

Jaden, Jason, and Syrus had made it, barely, and were now seated at one of the tables in the Slifer cafeteria. Their welcome "dinner" consisted of a small bowl of rice, some sardines, and various sauces. Syrus nearly face planted at the sight of the measly meal. It was not, in any way shape or form, the welcome they were expecting. Though they shouldn't have been surprised considering what Chumley had said about what people thought of the red dorm. Jaden and Jason stared at the food with a ravenous look.

"Forget the food, or lack thereof, look at the headmaster. It's a cat!" said another new Slifer as he pointed at a brown striped cat that was sleeping at the spot that the headmaster would normally sit. Then a tall, skinny man with black hair and a pair of glasses on walked into the room from the kitchen.

"Hello children," he said with a slight German accent "I am professor Banner, the headmaster of this dorm." He smiled and picked up the sleeping cat. "And this is my cat, Pharaoh." The cat struggled and meowed in indignation.

"Well, I guess that plate was warm or something and that's why it was sleeping there." Syrus said sweat dropping.

"Now before we eat I would like to say-" Banner said before being interrupted by the Yuki twins.

Jason had raised three fingers then slowly put them down one at a time. When the final finger had gone down both boys started to eat the food before them greedily, occasionally coming up for air.

"This is great." Jaden said as he stopped to breath before going back to stuffing himself.

"Guys what are you doing? You're going to get into trouble." Syrus said worriedly.

Banner walked over to them after setting Pharaoh back onto the table, who promptly curled up and went back to sleep. He looked down at the oblivious Yuki twins and said.

"You are supposed to say something about yourself at this dinner, to let everyone know you better."

"How about this, I'm starving." Jaden said before returning to his food. Jason nodded in agreement and he too returned to his food. Banner stared at them then smiled and said.

"Since we're all hungry, let's just eat" he threw his arms into the air and returned to his spot.

Raven, Alexis, and Asami arrived at the welcome dinner slightly early, surprisingly enough. Raven was directed to a table full of new students in the giant Obelisk Blue cafeteria, while Alexis and Asami were directed to one filled with older students. Actually cafeteria is a poor choice of words as it was more of a five star restaurant than a typical cafeteria. Docter Crowler was standing before the mass of new students in the front of the room.

"Welcome students, new and old mind you, to the Obelisk Blue dorm." He said smiling "this will be our home for the next several months, unless you lose, but that surely won't happen because you are the best of the best here at duel academy. Now as every other dorm is probably saying right now, let's eat."

The food was better than Raven had ever tasted. Though this was the top ranking dorm so what did he expect, sardines and a bowl of rice?

After the slifer dinner Jaden and Jason went up to their room and fell asleep in their beds. They had yet to unpack but they were tired and didn't feel like it at the moment. They were awoken later at night by the loud beeping of Jason PDA going off. They checked it and found a message on it.

"What do you think this is, Jason?" Jaden yawned, still half asleep.

Jason made hand signs in the half light of the moon. Jaden couldn't quite make them out due to sleep and low lighting.

"Run that by me one more time, Jace." he said waking up a little more.

Jason made the hand signs again and tapped the screen to open up the message.

"It's a message, other than that I have no clue." He 'said' rolling his eyes

"Oh, ok. Let's look at it." Jaden said nodding

Jason opened the video recording imbedded in the message and saw Chazz's face taking up his screen. The twins almost groaned.

"Jaden, Jason and Raven, come to the arena and be prepared to lose your best card." The recording of Chazz said.

"Well looks like we're dueling on the first day after all." Jaden said smiling "let's go and show Chazz what real dueling looks like."

"Here we are, now where's Chazz?" Jaden asked to no one in particular

"Here I am, Slifer trash." Chazz said from the arena "Now we only have to wait for Raven."

"You don't have to wait any longer." Raven said as he walked out of the trees "What's this about Chazz, losing in plain sight of your cronies too embarrassing for you? Is that why you brought us out here in the middle of the night?"

"Shut up and listen." Chazz said angrily "We will be using your idea for the duel, but with one difference. I refuse to be on a team with a slacker, so this duel will be a battle royal. We will also be playing with an anti."

"Interesting. Very well let's have a duel" Raven said as he stroked his chin

"A Yuki never backs down from a challenge." Jaden said determinedly with Jason nodding behind him.

The boys, excluding Chazz who was already ready, walked into the arena and took their positions for the duel.

"So we going to stand around all night or are we going to duel?" Raven asked once everyone was ready "Shall we clash or cut? For order."*

"We'll clash!" Chazz declared as he drew from his deck and revealed a 'Mefiest the Infernal General' (Atk:1800)

Jaden drew and revealed a 'Elemental Hero Necroshade' (Atk:1600)

Raven drew and revealed a card called 'Heart of Aria' (spell card)

Jason drew and revealed a card called 'Rioichi Cooper' (Atk:1700)

"Looks like I'm going first" Chazz said sneering "so let's duel"

Chazz: 4000

Jason: 4000

Jaden: 4000

Raven: 4000

They all drew their starting hands, Raven included as he had given the duel vest back to Crowler saying that 'while efficient, I prefer the standard duel disk.'

"I go first." Chazz said "And I start by playing a monster in face down defense mode. Next I set two cards face down, and then I end my turn. Your move, gimp." Three face down cards appeared in front of him.

Jason drew his card then took out his pad, wrote, then showed everyone.

"I summon 'Sir Galleth Cooper' in ATK mode. Then I play a card face down."

A reversed card appeared as did a grey furred raccoon in a suit of medieval knight's armor. He carried a great-sword in a one handed grip and on his back every one saw a lance like thing that was shaped like a question mark. He looked around the field through his helmet visor, which he lifted up to get a better view. (Atk:1300/Def:1000)

"What the hell is that?" Chazz asked surprised "You didn't have that card during the application duel."

Jason looked at him, smiled shrewdly, and wrote again.

"To answer your first question, it's a raccoon in shining armor. And second, yes I know. These cards are from my other deck. I switch out between the masked heroes and this deck but use this one more often. If there are no more questions I end my turn. Your move, Jaden."

Jaden drew his card.

"I start by summoning Elemental Hero Bubbleman in ATK mode. And since he is the only card on my field I can draw two cards from my deck."

The blue hero appeared and Jaden drew two cards. (Atk:800/Def:1200) Jaden looked over his expanded hand.

"Now I play two cards face down and end my turn. Your go Raven."

Jaden placed the two cards in slots on his duel disk and gestured to Raven as he said this. The violet eyed boy drew his card and looked at his hand.

"I start by summoning Novice Hero: Thief. And due to his effect I remove him from play."

A young boy appeared. He had black and blond hair and wore and eye patch with an image of a throwing star on it over his right eye. His other eye was startling blue. He wore black leather armor with dark blue pualdrons and bracers. He also wore a belt that had several knives and pouches hanging from it. In one of his hands he carried a curve bladed, spike handled, knife in a backhanded grip and in the other he loosely held a throwing star. He got into a ready stance then disappeared in a flash of light and smoke.

"That was stupid. Now you have nothing to defend yourself." Chazz said

"Yes it would be." Raven agreed "That is if I didn't play this. The spell card Regroup."

A green bordered card appeared with an image of seven people coming together, three of which being Phantom Luminous and Mercedes.

"With this card I can special summon one Legendary Hero monster from my hand. I choose Legendary Hero: Mercedes the Swift wind" Raven said as he placed the card onto the duel disk he wore.

The blond hero appeared with her bow guns at the ready. (Atk:2400/Def:1800)

"I end my turn with a face down." Raven said sliding the card into a slot on the back on his disk.

"My turn." Chazz announced as he drew his card "and since everyone has made a turn I can attack. But first I play Chthonian Soldier. Along with the spell card Reinforcement of the Army." A muscular man in dark armor carrying a blade the size of his torso appeared. (Atk:1200/Def:1400) Chazz removed his deck from his disk and picked a card from it and placed it in his hand.

"Now I can attack. So go Chthonian Soldier attack Jaden's Bubbleman with chthonian slash." Chazz ordered.

The dark warrior leaped forward, swinging it's sword in a downward arc. It was right about to hit the water themed hero when Jaden pressed a button on his disk revealing one of his face downs.

"I activate my trap, Mirror Gate. With this card I can switch control of our monsters."

A mirror appeared in between the two monsters and then the monsters had switched positions on the field and it was Jaden's Chthonian Soldier attacking Chazz's Bubbleman. The hero put up his arms to protect himself and shattered from the attack.

Chazz: 3600

Jason: 4000

Jaden: 4000

Raven: 4000

"Fine, slacker. I end my turn." Chazz said looking more than a little angry. The Chthonian soldier appeared back on Chazz's field then Jason drew his card. He looked over his hand then he played a card and wrote on his pad.

"I play 'Tennessee Kid Cooper' in ATK mode"

A brown raccoon appeared but instead of wearing knight's armor like Galleth he wore a more western like outfit. He wore a brown bowler hat and a yellow bandana around his neck. He had an orange button up shirt with a black vest over it. He had black leather gloves on that were scrunched up as much as possible at the wrist so that the gloves didn't cover up more than was necessary. On his back sat a rifle that had the same question mark like design that Sir galleth's lance had, coming out of the butt of the gun. He wore a belt that had a few bullets held on by loops that looked like they were made for that specific purpose. (Atk:1600/Def:1500)

Tennessee turned to Jason a said.

"Let's show these kids up, eh Jason?"

Jason took out his pad smiling.

"I activate Tennessee's effect. Once per turn I can destroy a random card from my opponent's hand. So Raven, sorry, but say good bye to one of your cards."

Tennessee took his rifle out of its holster and fired at one of the cards in Raven's hand yelling "Fire!" as he did so. Raven watched as his To the Skies card was shot through and destroyed, leaving only one left.

Jason wrote again.

"Next I activate Sir Galleth's effect. I discard one card from my hand to boost his ATK points by 1000."

He sent one card from his hand to his graveyard and watched as Galleth put his massive sword away and drew his lance (Atk:2300)

Jason pointed forward and Galleth seemed to take that as an attack order as he charged towards Chazz and his soldier. The soldier was skewered by Gallath's lance and shattered. When the dust cleared from the attack Jason saw Chazz smirking and pressing a button on his disk.

"Thanks for that Slacker. You activated my trap. Chthonian Blast! When one of my monsters is destroyed I can destroy one of your monsters with the lowest ATK points and we all take damage equal to half of it. Plus Chtonian soldier's effect makes it so you take the same amount of damage as I do." Chazz said

One of Chazz's face downs flipped up and Tennessee spontaneously exploded. The edges of the explosion hit everyone in some degree.

Chazz: 1700

Jason: 2100

Jaden: 3200

Raven: 3200

Jason wrote on his pad.

"I end."

"Good try, Bro." Jaden said to his brother while drawing his card "It's my move. And I start by playing Dark Fusion. With this card I can send the elemental heroes Avian and Burstinatrix in my hand to my graveyard to special summon Evil hero Inferno Wing."

The familiar heroes flew out of his hand and got sucked into a black swirling vortex. The vortex stopped spinning and a new monster flew out. It was a woman with green spikey hair and giant goggles that covered most of her face. The only part of her face that was visible was the smirk that all Evil Heroes had. She wore a red robe and had cactus shaped hands with giant claws for fingers. On her back she had massive gray bird wings. She landed and spread her wings outward taking up most of Jaden's field. (Atk:2100/Def:1200)

Raven and chazz both took a step back at her sinister appearance. Raven was even more startled by the fact that Jaden called her an "Evil Hero". He had never heard of them before but just the name sounded, well, evil.

"It's not every day I can stretch my wings and take up a battle field." The new monster said to Jaden.

"And with her on the field I can attack. But before I do I play H – Heated Heart to give my Inferno Wing an additional 500 Atk points." Jaden continued his turn.

Inferno wing laughed maniacally as her stats went up. (Atk:2600)

"Now, attack Raven's Mercedes with Inferno Blast"

Inferno wing flew into the air, summoning a giant fire ball in between her cactus like hands. Raven smiled and pressed a button on his disk.

"That's a delightful plan, but I believe you've forgotten some things, my face down for one." The card in question flipped over to reveal a trap card with a picture of Phantom standing in front of some people with his cane raised, cape billowing behind him. "The card is called Theatrics. And it activates when an opponent attacks me. Its effect is very simple, it returns your monster to your hand, or it would if Inferno Wing wasn't a fusion monster. Better luck next time."

Mercedes placed her bow guns in straps on her back and leapt into the air. She did a theatrical flip and landed in front of Jaden's fusion monster. She jumped up and used Inferno Wing as a launch pad to fly back onto Raven's side of the field. Jaden's fire based monster staggered back a step and disappeared back into Jaden's fusion deck.

"Uh… well ok then." Jaden said surprised "I end, I guess."

"My turn." Raven announced as he drew his card. "And on my standby phase I can activate one of the two effects of my Novice Hero: Thief. And I activate his second effect, which allows me to special summon two Novice Hero: Thief tokens." Two copies of the black clothed boy appeared next to Mercedes in flashes of smoke. (Atk:1400/Def:1000)X2

"Now I activate Mercedes' effect once per turn I can add the ATK points of all of my Novice heroes to the ATK points of my Mercedes."

The elfin hero's bow guns started to glow with a bright blue light. (Atk:5200)

"And as an added bonus she can attack twice each battle phase. Now Mercedes, attack Jaden directly with Piercing Storm."

Mercedes raised her bow guns and fired a stream of light blue glowing arrows at Jaden. With no traps or monsters to defend himself with, Jaden had no choice but to cover his face with his arms and watch his life point go down to zero

"Once more Mercedes, attack Jason's Sir Galleth."

Again the hero raised her guns and fired at the raccoon in question. They all watched as Sir Galleth went from looking like a raccoon in armor to a blue glowing porcupine. Jason repeated the action his twin had just performed as his monster exploded.

Chazz: 1700

Jason: 0 (out)

Jaden: 0 (out)

Raven: 3200

"Next time guys. Now Chazz, I set one card face down and end my turn. And since I do Mercedes loses her power boost." Raven said as he set the card down. Mercedes' dual bow guns stopped glowing. (Atk:2400)

"My move and it will be your last round, Slacker." Chazz said drawing his card "First I play the spell card Spellbook Inside the Pot which allows us both to draw three cards" They both drew. Raven looked at the cards and smiled internally. This duel was as good as over.

"Now I tribute my face down Mystic Tomato to summon Chthonian Dragon in ATK position." His face down card shattered and a black and green dragon appeared in front of Chazz. (Atk:2400/Def:1500)

"And like your Mercedes my dragon can attack twice, so long as I re-summon it." Chazz continued. The monster shattered and reformed instantly.

"Now Chthonian Dragon attack his Thief tokens with Chthonian Roar." The dragon roared and shot a burst of dark flames at Raven's tokens, destroying them one after the other. Once the dragon was done both of the tokens were gone from Raven's side of the field.

"I activate my trap, Agent of the Resistance." Raven said pressing a button on his devise "With this I can special summon up to two Experienced Heroes on my next standby phase"

"Whatever," Chazz snorted "it won't help you"

"We'll see about that" Raven replied

Chazz: 1700

Jason: 0 (out)

Jaden: 0 (out)

Raven: 1200

"Your move Raven, you get one turn before I end you." Chazz gloated

"So you say but now it's my turn." The boy replied as he drew his card. "First my trap activates, allowing me to special summon my heroes. Or in this case only one, come on out Experienced Hero: Poison Blaze."

The red haired sorceress appeared with fire in her eyes and staff at the ready.

"Now I play the spell card Redemption and tribute my Poison Blaze to special summon my Legendary Hero: Phantom the Unseen." Raven said as the legendary thief appeared. "Now I set one card face down and end my turn."

On the side lines Yubel had appeared unseen next to Jaden. When she saw Phantom she grew, if possible, paler than usual.

"It can't be." She muttered in mild fear for her student. Feeling something familiar around him, Phantom looked around but didn't notice Yubel in the shadows of the night.

"You lose. How did you ever get into Obelisk blue? You can't beat me." Chazz said drawing his card

Phantom turned to Raven and nodded

"Go for it. Let's give our spectators a good show." he said to his apprentice

Raven pushed a button on his duel disk and said.

"I activate my trap."

"But I haven't done anything yet." Chazz said confused

"True. But I activate it anyway. It's called Black Mage's Wrath. With it I can tribute two Legendary Hero monsters to deal damage to you equal to their combined levels multiplied by two hundred."

Jaden heard this, thought for second then said. "If Mercedes is a level eight monster and Phantom is a level seven monster then Chazz is getting hit for three thousand points of damage. Am I right?" he turned to Jason as he said this. Jason nodded in conformation.

A giant man in a red hooded robe appeared and pointed a finger that was attached to a dead looking hand at Phantom and Mercedes then at Chazz. The Heroes burst into vicious red flames, then the flames died down and revealed small burnt spots where the heroes had been standing. There was a cracking sound and suddenly a pillar of the same fire erupted from below Chazz's feet and depleted his life points.

Chazz: 0

Jason: 0

Jaden: 0

Raven: 1200 (winner)

"If there's nothing else you wanted to do, Chazz, I'll be heading back to bed." Raven said as he stepped off of the arena. "And don't bother with the anti, guys." He called over his shoulder.

Chazz was furious. Not had his duel idea gone way too far south but the guard hadn't shown up as planned. He growled and silently cursed Raven and the twins to no end. Jaden looked at Jason and Yubel. They were both standing, or floating in Yubel's case, with looks of shock and horror on their faces. Jaden waved his hand in front of his twin's face to get him to snap out of it. Jason shook his head slightly and looked at Jaden for an explanation.

"Come on bro. Time to go. I'm beat." the king said

Raven had already walked out of the clearing and back to the blue dorm and Phantom's explanation of the supreme king. The brothers left the arena as well shortly afterwards, seeing no reason to stick around and get caught after curfew, if there was one.

"So where were we?" Phantom asked once they were in Raven's room.

Raven was sitting on his bed looking at his mentor as he hovered at the foot of the bed.

"Aria." Raven answered simply

"Ah, yes, Aria." Phantom said sadly "Well to understand Aria you'll need to not only hear the whole story but see it as well." He pulled a card, much like Raven's, out of nowhere and activated it. An illusion sprang to life and surrounded the two.

Phantom P.O.V.

I stood in front of the palace walls. The night was beautiful, with nothing blocking the moon. The palace was practically sparkling. My plan was to convince the empress that I loved her, so much so that she would literally hand over the Skaia, the legendary gem of Ereve. Heartless I knew but everything has it's price. I ran forward and leaped deftly from one terrace to the other, as I had done so many times before. I finally stopped jumping once I reached the uppermost terrace. I climbed up to where I was standing on the rail. I stood there, staring at the occupant of the terrace, waiting for her to notice me. The occupant was a woman standing in the middle, with her back facing me, seemingly lost in thought.

She had a white dress that went up to her shoulders and shoulder length blond hair with a crown like head piece. She wore a see through blue scarf around her arms and a large golden necklace with a blue gem set in it. Suddenly she jumped and turned around asking.

"Who's there?"

I crossed his arms and lowered my head slightly to cover it in shadows.

"Don't tell me you've waiting for me all night." I said as the woman turned back around.

"Shall I summon the guard?" the woman asked suspiciously

"They won't make it here in time even if you did." I replied. She smiled at that. This was almost too easy.

I stepped off of the railing and slowly walked towards her. The woman lowered her head.

"I'll not hand over our treasure, no matter how charming you try to be." She said quietly. This took me off guard, so she wasn't just a pretty face. She saw through my bluff pretty easily.

"Charming?" I asked raising a hand in question while not showing my shock "you're finally coming to your senses, Aria."

The empress smiled and then the scene changed. It was the same balcony but the moon was half not full and the terrace had what looked like snow on it.

Aria spoke to me as I walked over to her. I was much more familiar with her at this point. She wasn't the simple empress people took her to be. She was smart, funny, and slightly calculating.

"I've invited an envoy from Haou to Ereve." She said this sadly like it was a major defeat "I hope to negotiate terms of peace."

I held out one of my golden cards and watched as it turned into a rose.

"All this worrying, it's going to give you crow's feet." I said kindly, offering the rose to her.

She gasped and turned her head to look at me. She took the rose and smiled at me. The smile I loved.

"There, I prefer a woman with a smile on her face" I said smiling at her. This in turn earned me a bigger smile from her and a small shake of her head.

The scene changed once more. Now it seemed to be in some sort of garden with a roof over it. I had heard of an attack on the empress and her court. I had searched the terrace where she normally was during this time of night, where she waited for me. I had heard a groan from the roofed garden. I dropped down from the ceiling and ran towards the massive Pegasus, Shinsoo guardian of the empress, who had Aria's body under his wing. Shinsoo looked like he had been through hell. Burns covered his body and it looked like it hurt for him to even move.

"Aria!" I yelled as I neared the two. Please let her be okay.

"Phantom?" The majestic beast groaned as it raised it's head slightly and opened one on its eyes "They were… too powerful."

It thundered slightly and rain started to pour. Almost mirroring the action my heart had just performed. No, she can't be gone.

"Phantom… take the Skaia… protect it." Shinsoo said painfully. But I didn't hear him. All I could do was look at Aria's body and weep.

Why would the world be filled with monsters, who could, without remorse, kill a lands ruler, for no other reason than to say they did? Why did that ruler have to be Aria? I came to the conclusion; this world that exists, the world that she believed in, deserves better than a thief who cares for nothing other than personal gain.

The scene changed one last time. It was a cottage like place with wooden shutters for windows. I was leaning against the door frame, looking down a hallway spinning a card by it's corner on my finger, Aria's favorite trick. A brown haired man in a red and white robe was walking towards me. His name was Freud and rumor was it that he was putting together a set of the world's best fighters to end the tyranny of the bastard Haou. I wanted in so that was why I was here. It was a week since Aria's death and the sky was clear and the moon was missing altogether.

"So the infamous Phantom thief shows up at my doorstep, and offers to change his ways. Tell me is you conscience that heavy?" Freud said

A gust of wind blew the card from it's place on my finger, sending it flying across the distance between us.

"What is it? A confession?" The robed man said as he picked the card off the floor and looked at it's image. A picture of two angel like people. One dressed like a gentleman and the other like Aria.

"It appears Haou stole the wrong treasure." Freud said. "Alright you're in."

The illusion disappeared and Raven looked at his mentor sadly. Phantom was crying silently still staring at where Aria had been in the image.

"The Black Mage, formally known as the Supreme King, nearly destroyed the entire world in his lust for power." Phantom said bitterly "He killed Aria and her court simply because they wouldn't meet his demands."

Raven looked at the floor comprehending what he had just seen.

"So how did you defeat him?" he asked quietly

"We sealed him away in time but not before we had to sacrifice one of our friends to do so." Phantom said pointing to the card that housed the spirit that Raven was utterly afraid of.

"Shade, was that friend. But the black mage came back a hundred years later and sought out revenge against us. He destroyed Shade's family home, we killed him that time. But Shade was not the same."

Raven looked at Phantom then at the card the held Shade.

"How so?" he asked

"He was convinced that Haou would somehow return and reap untold horrors upon us all. He became a shade of his former self, if you pardon the expression." Phantom said with no hint of mirth. "I think that that's enough for now. Get on to bed, the past will still be here when you wake up. Especially the stuff like this." He added sadly obviously thinking of Aria

Raven nodded and went to sleep.

Jaden sat on his bunk, trying to go to sleep, when Yubel appeared, looking as worried as he'd ever seen her.

"We need to talk." She said with her arms crossed

"Uh-oh, that's not good." Jaden joked tiredly

"Raven's cards, I know them." Yubel said urgently, ignoring the young king's joke

"Can't this wait until morning?" Jaden asked. This earned him a scathing look from his teacher. "Ok fine, hit me."

"The heroes that Raven plays with were once enemies of Haou. They had ample reason of course but still they were his enemies." The demoness said

"Why were they enemies?" Jaden asked Yubel "What did Haou do?"

"It depends based on the hero. They all had one reason or another for fighting Haou." She said

"Phantom then? I heard you mutter something when you saw him appear on the field." Jaden asked his mentor

Yubel looked down sadly. Jaden knew that she hated telling him about the darker things his past self had done but never had she looked so remorseful about something that Haou had done

"The ruler of the continent the heroes originate from, her name was Aria. She was concerned that Haou would slaughter her people if peace was not found. For the peace talk, Haou sent Inferno Wing and Lightning Golem. When Haou's demands were not met instantly they attacked, slaughtered the empress and her court, and then stole the gem that gave the empress's the wisdom and strength needed to rule. Phantom was secretly in love with the empress. When he found out what Haou had done. Let's just say that _he,_ out of the five heroes, was the one who most wanted to put Haou into the ground."

Jaden sat on the bed, concentrating on what his friend had told him.

"So you think Phantom will enact some sort of final revenge on Haou by killing me?" Jaden asked seriously.

"It's a possibility." Yubel said looking at Jaden "but enough of that for now."

Jaden closed his eyes and tried, unsuccessfully, to go back to sleep.

*pualdrons are shoulder guards invented in the medieval era. They strap under your armpit and have multiple overlapping plates of metal that cover your shoulder and most of your upper arm.

*"clash" is a term from Magic the Gathering. It means to reveal the top card of your deck and whoever has the highest mana, or ATK in this case, wins. They then put that card on the top or bottom of the deck, for my purposes it will be the bottom. Spells and traps count as zero. I will use this system more, maybe not in duels but definitely for duels like this one with more than two teams or combatants.


	3. Chapter 3: Tag Team of Love

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason and Asami belong to SuperNeos2. The classes Raven cards are based off of belong to Nexon Korea. The only thing I own is Raven and his card ideas.

A/N: If you want to look at the images of the cards I made for Raven, they are all on my Deviant art account. I will leave a link to the first card on my profile page.

A/N 2: unfortunately I cannot show you guys the pics I made for Jason's deck, as I was all but sued to take them down after a week of them being up. But I did make images for the new character's deck that I introduce in this chapter. If you guys want me to post those on my deviant art account; give me a review, if not, again, leave a review.

Chapter Three

Tag Team of Love

(The Phantom of Shadows)

Raven walked into the first class of the day, which was in the auditorium that the orientation had been held in. He immediately noticed that Doctor Crowler was teaching the class and that the dorms were sitting separated from each other. Seeing how Chazz treated Jaden and Jason he shouldn't have been surprised that the dorms didn't get along that well. Raven sat in the back of the room again and began to observe the proceeding rabble of pre-class. Just then, Crowler walked over to the podium that had his notes on it and began the lesson, effectively ending Raven's observation.

"So class, today we will be learning, or reviewing, the types of cards we use in dueling. We will also be exploring their uses and other such." He said.

The class was listening intently, some even starting to take notes. Raven saw the black hair boy from the orientation duels in the Ra yellow section of the room. He also saw a blue haired boy sitting next to Jaden and Jason. The boy looked like he was trying to avoid Crowler's attention.

"Now, who can tell me the types of cards that exist?" he asked. No one raised their hand. Which Raven thought was a little weird. Crowler looked over the half asleep class and finally pointed to Alexis and said. "Alexis, can you tell us the types of cards?"

Alexis stood up without looking to anyone in the class.

"There are three different types of cards. Monster cards, spell cards, and trap cards. Each can be categorized into multiple subtypes. For monsters it's Normal monsters, Effect monsters, Ritual monsters, and Fusion monsters. Traps can be grouped into Normal traps, Continuous traps, and Counter traps. Spells can be categorized into Normal spells, Continuous spells, Ritual spells, Quick Play spells, Equip spells, and Field spells." She explained

"Excellent! Of course I would expect nothing less from an obelisk. Thank you Alexis you may return to your seat." Crowler praised. Alexis did as he suggested.

"All right, who's next?" Crowler asked himself. He looked over the crowd and spotted Jaden and Jason who were both in varying states of sleep. Crowler smiled evilly.

"Jason Yuki! Would you mind _telling_ us what a field spell is? Why don't you stand up so we can all _hear_ you?" he said still with the evil grin on his face.

Raven looked at his headmaster quizzically. Wondering if the he knew of Jason's muteness, it appeared slightly obvious that Crowler had an idea that the young slifer couldn't talk but Raven didn't think he was that heartless. Chazz yes, but Crowler, he was a teacher hear so not likely. Of course he had been wrong before.

Jaden stood up and glared at the good doctor. Jason on the other hand stared down at his desk and looked as if he wished he could spontaneously drop dead. He tilted his cap downward some more to hide his bandages. Jason at the moment _did_ wish that he could drop dead or some other method of disappearing from view. He knew his brother meant well by standing up for him but it really drew attention to him where he would like to remain hidden. On the other hand if his brother didn't standup to the bullies for him his life would probably be miserable.

"You know that my brother can't talk. Yet you pick him out of a crowd of perfectly eligible speakers and ask him specifically to speak. Simply so you can get revenge on me for beating you during the application duels by making my brother look like a fool in front of everyone." Jaden said angrily at Crowler, his eyes flashing a threatening gold color.

Looking around the room at his peers' expressions Raven could tell that everyone in the class room was either laughing at Jason or glaring angrily at Crowler along with Jaden.

"Well I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about." Crowler drawled "How was I to know that he couldn't speak? But thank you for enlightening me. Since you seem quite capable why don't you tell us what a field spell is then?"

The class continued on without a hitch after that, in Raven's opinion, or it would have had Crowler not asked to see him afterwards.

"Alright class, that does it for today." Crowler said aa the bell rang "Raven, may I speak to you before you leave?" he called out as Raven made his way for the door.

 _Great what now?_ Raven thought as he went back to Crowler. Crowler explained that Jaden and Jason needed to go. That they were a blight in the school and it's reputation. He also explained his plan for getting rid of them and was simply asking Raven's help.

"No!" he said after Crowler was done speaking. "I will not put a fake note into Jaden and Jason's lockers simply so you can get them into trouble and consequently expel them all on the account that Jaden beat you in the application duels. Did I miss anything?"

"But it's so simple, Raven, and besides they're just Slifer slackers. Who cares if they get expelled? It's not like it's not normal." Crowler argued.

"Except it isn't!" Raven said getting fed up with his headmaster's supremacist attitude "That's the thing. Those two are the best duelists around and they're in _Slipher Red_. They should be in Ra Yellow, minimum! But they're not and the only reason they're in Red in the first place is because you can't get over the fact that they beat both me and you."

"Well then, I know when to give up. You may go Raven." He said sadly, his usual creepy smile gone from his face. Raven left for his next class without another word.

Several classes later, Syrus was in the changing room, packing up from gym class when he saw something white and thin sticking out of locker he and Jaden shared. Curious he pulled it out and looked at it. It was a small note without an address on it. Since he thought it was for him he opened it and hastily read the note before dropping it and practically running out of the room.

Having been excused from gym and being the silent, not to mention shy, observer that had become his role, Jason saw the whole thing happen from the bench nearby. He went over and picked up the note wondering what had gotten Syrus so excited.

The note was supposedly from Alexis asking Jaden to meet her at the girls' side of the Obelisk blue dorm that night. But something was off, from what Jason knew of Alexis, and Asami for that matter, she was a rule follower and Jason could think of several rules that would be broken by following this note. Also unless Alexis skipped kindergarten that was not the way she would spell her name. And Syrus thought it was for him, perfect, not only was Jason going to have to warn Jaden about this but they were going to have to stop the little guy from getting into trouble as well.

Jason shook his head not liking where this day was going. He left the changing room in search of his twin.

 _I found it sitting out at the start of gym class. It was just sitting there with nobody looking after it. I don't know whom it belonged to but I kept it in the hopes that it's owner would come looking for it. A side deck is rather important after all._

"Of course it's not here. That would be far too easy." Raven grumbled as he finished searching the changing rooms for his side deck. "Why can't anything just, for once, go the way I want them to?" he sighed

"If I'm not mistaken the duel with Chazz worked out well enough. Or was that not the way you wanted it to go? Perhaps you could have thrown the duel and let everyone get caught by the guard that Chazz had informed." A duel spirit laughed as she flew out of the deck.

She looked to be in her teens but she acted much more mature. She had short brown hair and had a purple headband with gold and red wings that stuck up from it. She wore a red robe that had golden triangles as the trim. She also wore a white dress underneath. She had red gloves and boots and golden rings for earrings and carried a golden wand with purple wings and a blue spherical gem at the end. She had forest green eyes and a smile that almost never left her face.

"Other than that, Evan." Raven said smiling slightly and starting to walk out to the tennis courts to see if the coach had any ideas. "Besides you know why I have to get it back."

"Yes but being pessimistic won't help you, will it?" she said crossing her arms and frowning.

"Fine you win." The thief in training chuckled as he walked out onto the courts.

That evening Jason sat on his bed, thinking hard. He had managed to find, and warn, Jaden earlier that day but had yet to even see Syrus. And it was starting to get around curfew. Jaden sat next to him trying to get a message to Syrus through his PDA but was not having much luck.

They were about to call Alexis as a last resort when they saw something out their window. They both got up and looked outside. It was nearly dark so they couldn't see all that well but they could make out a small figure with a flashlight sitting in a row boat in the lake slowly making his way across to the blue dorm. Jaden turned to look at his brother who was frowning worriedly.

"How much you want to bet that's our missing blue haired buddy?" Jaden asked. Jason looked at then raised his hand with all fingers raised and spread apart.

"Done." The king said shaking his twin's hand. With their bet settled they both rushed to the door to stop their friend from breaking more rules than they cared to count.

Hidden in the bushes on the obelisk side of the lake a lone figure sat waiting for the Yuki twins' arrival. This person was Doctor Crowler, executing his plan that he had proposed to Raven that morning. He wore a black suit that effectively made him almost impossible to see. When he saw the boat coming across the lake he snickered and readied a small camera that he wore around his neck, getting ready to catch them in the act.

"The council won't be able to ignore this. Those boys will be expelled for sure." He said to himself.

The boat soon arrived at the beach but it was not the twins that stepped off of the boat but their friend, one Syrus Truesdale if he wasn't mistaken.

"That's not them. What is he doing here?!" Crowler shrieked giving away his cover to everyone, or it would have, if anyone was paying attention to him.

As soon as Sryus had stepped onto the shore he was ganged up on by every girl in the obelisk blue dorm, it seemed. They all asked him why he was here. To which he said that Alexis had asked him to be here and explained the note.

"A love note Syrus really?" Alexis asked incredulous. The other girls started to go back to bed at this point.

"It's true I swear. I found the note in mine and Jaden's gym locker." He said pleadingly

"I think someone was messing with you Syrus. Alexis never left a note to anyone in any a gym locker. She was with me all day." Asami said feeling bad for the small Slifer

"I guess it _was_ too good to be true. Can I go now?" the blue hair boy asked sounding more than a little downhearted.

"No I think we can still make good use of you, don't you Asami?" Alexis asked her friend grinning

"Sure, if you want to. We might never get another chance as good as this." The pinkette agreed

"Can someone fill in the ignorant Slifer here?" Syrus asked in a self-deprecating tone

"Wait!" a voice called out. Every one turned to look at two silhouettes running around the edge of the lake.

"We know what happened." Jaden yelled as he got closer to the group.

"Well, finally." Crowler grumbled from his hiding place.

"What do you mean?" Alexis asked as the twins stopped in front of them, breathing hard. Jaden looked at Jason for a second than spoke.

"I mean that we know why Syrus is here." He said "Syrus found a note in our locker that was intended for me and acted upon it." Jason handed over the note to the girls. Syrus looked shocked then even sadder at knowing that the note wasn't even intended for him.

"This isn't even how you spell my name." Alexis said as she looked over the note.

"Cool, you know what happened. Can you let me go now?" Syrus asked hopefully.

"Yeah we kinda need to go before someone sees us." Jaden said

"No." Alexis said amidst the complaints of the Slifers "If you want him you're going to have to duel us for him."

Jason shook his head. _Why did I know that something like this would happen?_ He thought.

"Well as we said last night, a Yuki never backs down from a challenge. So get your game on, girls." Jaden said, finally in his element.

Raven was awoken by a loud beeping noise next to his head.

"I don't think I ordered a wakeup call." He complained as he drowsily reached over to grab whatever it was that was beeping. What he grabbed was his PDA which was notifying him that someone was requesting a video call.

 _Well, this should be good_ he thought as he accepted the call, fully awake by now.

When the caller's face appeared Raven had no idea what was going on, the caller looked almost exactly like the girl from Phantom's memories only more modern looking. She was a Ra Yellow with long blond hair and blue eyes. Phantom was going to blow a gasket when he found out. What was weird about the girl was the fact that her eye whites were a cloudy grey.

"Hello Raven, so nice to see you again. And it was also so nice of you to leave your side deck in the gym." The girl said in a voice that sounded like two voices combined. _Shit,_ Raven thought _that's not good._

"Well, you could have at least let me sleep till morning, if that was all you wanted. Or is this more personal, Shade?" He said.

"Oh no," Shade said "I only wished to tell you to come down to the docks. We need to duel."

Raven understood the underlying message. Come to the docks now or my host dies. What would Shade care about one body, he/she could get another anytime he/she wanted.

"Fine I'll come." Raven said and ended the call. He grabbed his two decks and ran out of the dorm as fast as he could.

Down on the beach the Tag duel was starting off with each contestant in a row boat that Asami had dragged out of the Obelisk boat house. Syrus was in the row boat he had rowed across and was watching the duel from the sidelines.

"So clash, coin flip or what?" Jaden asked as he and Jason activated their disks.

"I'll make it real simple for you. We're going first." Alexis said.

Alexis/Asami: 8000

Jaden/Jason: 8000

"I'll start by summoning Cyber Gymnast in defense mode." Alexis said placing her card on her disk. A buff, blond woman in what appeared to be a purple and black spandex suit with a white mask over her face. She knelt down with her arms crossed in front of her chest. (Atk:800/Def:1800) "Your go Jaden."

"Ok, here goes." The slifer said as he drew his card. "I start by playing Dark Fusion." He showed the spell card. "With this I send my elemental heroes Avian and Wildheart to fusion summon Evil Hero Wild Cyclone."

The familiar dark vortex appeared in front of him and transparent images of Avian and a hero that looked like a Native American warrior flew out of his hand and into the vortex. When the vortex stopped spinning a new monster flew out. He was similar to both of his fusion materials. He had giant blue and black wings and wore blue pauldrons and loincloth. He had war paint on various area of his body and wore a feathered mask that covered up everything except the crazed sneer on his face. (Atk:1900/Def:2300)

He beat his wings once then turned and bowed unseen to Jaden.

"I am ready to serve you, my king" he said in a deep voice, to which Jaden nodded back to him.

"Now, since I can still normal summon this turn, I normal summon Elemental Hero Stratos and with his effect add a hero card to my hand. And who better than Elemental Hero Burstinatrix?" Jaden said as he placed the card on his disk then removed his deck, looked through it, removed a card and placed it in his hand. He looked at his two card hand then nodded to Asami to let her know it was her turn.

"My move then." She said drawing her card "I start by summoning Command knight in defense mode." A woman in red heavy plate mail appeared. She had blond hair and carried a long, thin shield or her arm. (Atk:1200/Def:1900) "Now I set two cards facedown and end my turn." Two reversed cards appeared.

Jason drew and looked over his hand. He took a card from his hand and showed it to the girls. It was a raccoon that wore the apparel of an Egyptian pharaoh. He then placed it on his disk. The Raccoon appeared with it's dual khopeshs* at the ready. (Atk:1000/Def:1000)

"That it Slytunkhamen the first and when it's summoned Jason can add a very specific spell card to his hand." Jaden said for his brother.

Jason looked through his deck, added a card to his hand then set two cards facedown and then gave Alexis a thumbs up.

"My move?" she asked him. Jason nodded. She drew her card "Okay, I summon Cyber Tutu in attack mode." A ballerina wearing red and turquoise leotard appeared. The boys were wondering why she was called cyber tutu until they spotted a near see through tutu attached to her suit. (Atk:1000/Def:800)

"And thanks to the fact that Jaden's monster has more ATK points than Tutu, she can attack you directly. So go! Attack Jaden with Pounding Pirouette." The futuristic dancer leaped into the air, started to spin in midair until she looked like a tornado and kicked Jaden in the face.

Alexis/Asami: 8000

Jaden/Jason: 7000

Raven arrived at the docks a minute after he had ended the call. He saw the girl standing on one of the piers, looking out on the water. a good place for dropping bodies, no one would find the corpse until at least a week later, probably Shade's intention if things went south for Raven. When Raven approached she spoke.

"Where do you think he is Raven? He's alive, I know that much, but other than that I know nothing."

"Shade, I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Now why don't you stop controlling the girl and we can all just forget about this."

Shade laughed, it was not a pleasant sound. "No I think not. You may not know of my purpose but you will be a hindrance none the less so… let us duel!"

Raven: 4000

Shade: 4000

"As the defendant of this duel, I'll go first." Raven announced "I start by playing the Novice Hero: Magician in defense mode."

A girl appeared. She had faint pinkish hair and had blue eyes almost as blue as Shade's host. She wore a white robe with red embellishments on the shoulders and bottom. Underneath the robe she wore a red dress. She wore dark blue stockings that went up past her knees and wore white shoes. She carried a staff with an ornamental white and blue orb on top in one hand and a large book in the other. She opened the book and a semitransparent blue dome appeared around her. (Atk:800/Def:1600).

"What's fun about this card is that it can attack you directly." Raven said

"Not in defense mode it can't." Shade said

"Ah Shade, you should have paid more attention to my cards. Because yes it can." Raven said. "Now since I can't attack yet I'll set two cards facedown and end my turn." He placed the cards on his disk and waited for shade to make her move.

"I draw." Shade said doing exactly that. "I start by playing Arno Dorian: Child in defense mode. And when he is summoned I can add one Tragedy spell card from my deck to my hand. I think I'll take this." Shade added the card that she wanted to her hand. "I too set two cards facedown and end my turn." The cards appeared in front of Shade, along with a small boy in a green suit. The boy had brown hair and carried himself as if he was scared or curious.

"My move" Raven said as he drew his card. "First I play Experienced Hero: Ranger." A red hair woman appeared on Raven's side of the field. She wore green and brown armor similar to that of Mercedes only this was made of leather and was less flashy. She had a dark blue cape and held a silver bow in her hand. (Atk:2200/Def:1500)

"Next I activate the spell card Fate of Elluel to change your monster into attack mode" Raven said pressing a button on his disk and revealing the card.

A light shown down from the sky and focused on Arno, the boy stood up straighter and his expression of fear vanished.

"Now Ranger attack Arno with Arrow Hurricane." Raven ordered. Ranger pulled back her bow string as a glowing green arrow appeared. When she fired the arrow it disappeared and turned into a giant green tornado that nearly slammed into Arno.

Just before the storm hit Shade's monster she pressed two buttons on her disk. Her facedowns flipped up "I activate the quick-play spell card Hidden Blade and the trap card Mirror force. This stops your monster from attacking me and destroys it, it also allows me to tribute my monster to special summon a stronger form of the same monster. Say hello to the French assassin, Arno Dorian."

"I activate my monsters effect. I can discard one card and then destroy one card in your hand. Destroy the one on the left." Raven said pointing at the card in question.

Raven discarded a card and watched as Ranger drew back her bow and a blue arrow appeared in between her fingers. She then fired at Shade's card. Shade could do nothing but watch as the card on the farthest to the left of her hand was sent to the grave. Then both Raven's and Shade's monsters shattered from the slightly delayed blast of Shade's trap but only Shade got another monster in return.

Shade's new monster was a young man wearing a dark blue jacket with a hood that covered most of his face. Everything else he wore was either white or dark blue. It was all very nondescript. In his hand he carried a rapier and on his belt he had a holster that had a flintlock pistol in it. (Atk:2300/Def:2000)

"I end my turn." Raven said shortly

"Good, I was getting bored over here." Shade said as she drew her card "I start by playing Ezio Auditore: Noble." The new monster was a young man in his twenties. He wore a fancy white shirt which was mostly covered up by an ornate black vest. He also wore a black bracer on his left arm and black trousers. "Then I set two cards facedown and end my turn."

"My move then," Raven said "I start by playing Heart of Aria. This card allows me to special summon a Legendary Hero: Phantom the Unseen from my graveyard."

"But you don't have Phantom in your graveyard." Shade protested

 _Some people are so narrow minded_ Raven thought "oh but I do my… well not friend but… acquaintance, yeah that works. But I do my acquaintance; I discarded him when I used my Ranger's effect." He said. The thief appeared in a flurry of cards. He narrowed his eyes at Raven's opponent and gripped his cane tighter. (Atk:2500/Def:2000)

"So, he's back. That's not good" Phantom said, almost to himself

"Now I activate my spell To the Skies to return your assassin to your hand." Raven said

"And I activate Magic Jammer." Shade said activating his facedown and discarding a card "I'm sure you know what this does."

"Fine let's get rid of that card the old fashioned way. Phantom attack his Arno with Mille Aiguilles!" Phantom slid his grip on his cane down to where he was holding it in the middle. He then ran towards Arno and whacked him five times with the rounded end of his cane. The French assassin shattered and the last stroke of Phantom's cane sent a shockwave that reduced Shades life points. Phantom gripped his cane in its original position.

Raven: 4000

Shade: 3800

Alexis/Asami: 8000

Jaden/Jason: 7000

"I end" Alexis said

"My move" Jaden said as he drew his card "I start by summoning Elemental Hero Burstinatrix." The red hero appeared. "Now I play Dark Calling to fusion summon Evil Hero Inferno Wing by banishing Burstinatrix and the Avian in my graveyard." The two heroes disappeared in a blast of black smoke. When it cleared Inferno Wing stood where Burstinatrix had previously stood. She stretched her wings out similar to the night before. Her spirit turned and inclined her head to the young king respectfully. (Atk:2100/Def:1200)

"Now that I have these two monsters out I can attack you and take a sizable chunk out of your life points. First off we have Wild Cyclone, attack Alexis's cyber tutu with Cyclone Slash!" the king ordered.

The evil hero beat his wings which generated several sickle like gusts of wind. When the gusts hit cyber tutu she shattered instantly. Several left over gusts hit Alexis and reduced her life points drastically.

"Next we have exhibit number two, Inferno Wing. Attack her Gymnast with Inferno Blast!" Inferno Wing threw a fire ball at Alexis's monster which shattered on impact.

"Now Inferno's effect activates. Which deals damage to you equal to your monster's DEF points. Go Dark Back Fire!"

Inferno flew over to Alexis and launched a stream of fire at the girl, reducing her life points even further.

Alexis/Asami: 5300

Jaden/Jason: 7000

"I end my turn with a face down," Jaden said "Your go Asami."

"Very well" She said drawing her card "I summon Marauding Captain in attack mode." A knight in pale green-blue plate mail appeared carrying a sword in each hand. (Atk:1200/Def:400)

"Now I use his effect which allows me to special summon another monster to the field. Like Warrior Lady of the Wasteland." Asami said as her new warrior appeared. The monster was a woman in tattered green light armor with a blue hilted sword on her back. She also had a ragged brown cape and hat to complete the outfit. (Atk:1100/Def:1200)

"And to complete this turn's round of spell casting, I activate the spell card The A. Forces and the effect of my Command Knight. This combo raises the ATK points of my monsters by one thousand." Asami continued. One of her facedowns flipped up revealing the continuous spell card and Asami's knight raised her sword which started to give off a red aura. (Atk:2200) (Atk:2200) (Atk:2100)

"Command Knight, attack Jason's Slytunkhamen with Inspiring Charge." She ordered.

The crimson armored knight locked her shield in front of her, raised her sword, and charged Jason's monster. The poor raccoon pharaoh had no time at all to react as the massive sword skewered him with part of the sword reaching it's owner, reducing his life points.

Jason pressed a button on his disk revealing one of his facedowns. It was a trap card with the image of a blue clad raccoon with a card in his hand. He then took out his deck, selected two cards and showed them to the girls. One was a picture of a bowler hat wearing Raccoon leaning against a rifle that had a question mark shaped butt, none other than Tennessee Kid Cooper. The other was a picture of a black clad hooded raccoon admiring a purple gem.

"The trap my brother activated is called Calling Card. When a Cooper monster of his is destroyed it allows him to special summon another one from his deck or hand. And he's also activating the second effect of the late Slytunkhamen. Which allows him to special summon his descendant when he is destroyed by battle. Say hello to Tennessee Kid Cooper and Slytunkhamen Cooper the second" Jaden explained. The two monsters appeared and Jason once again took out his deck. This time he revealed a field spell and placed it in his hand. (Atk:1600/Def:1500) (Atk:1500/Def:1500)

"That effect activates when Slytunkmen the second is summoned. It allows Jason to add one Cooper Vault field spell from his deck to his hand." Jaden said

"Wow, Jason what'd you do to duel not one but two pretty girls, didn't know you had it in ya." Tennessee said teasingly as he surveyed the field.

Jaden heard this and snickered. "So Jason, you got a crush, bro?" the boy in question threw his pen at his brother good naturedly.

"As enjoyable as it is to watch you two mess with each other, I'd like to complete my turn." Asami said

Alexis/Asami: 5300

Jaden/Jason: 5800

"Next, Marauding Captain, attack his Slytunkhamen the second with Ravaging Slash." Asami ordered. The warrior ran forward issuing a soundless battle cry. He slashed the cooper once with each sword and then ran back to Asami's side of the field.

Alexis/Asami: 5300

Jaden/Jason: 5100

"Finally, my Lady, attack Jason's Tennessee with Wasteland Strike." The warrior drew her sword and leaped into the air to bring her sword down on the raccoon's head. Jason pressed a button on his disk revealing a trap card showing the blue clad raccoon standing in a cloud of smoke.

"That trap is called Smoke bomb and it negates your attack so long as he controls a Cooper monster, which he does." Jaden explained still acting as his brother's interpreter.

Tennessee was enveloped in a cloud of smoke which caused Asami's monster to stop and cough then return to it's owner's side of the field

"Okay I end my turn." Asami said

Jason drew then showed a card to the girls. It was the blue clad raccoon they had seen on his two trap cards. He played it in attack position.

The raccoon appeared. He wore a modern looking blue shirt with a red belt. He didn't wear any pants but did have blue boots that went up to his knees. He wore a blue baseball cap almost exactly like the one Jason wore to hide his Bandages. He wore blue gloves that had gold cuffs and carried a cane that, much like the rest of Jason's monsters, was in the shape of a question mark. (Atk:1500/Def:1200)

"That is Jason's star monster. Ladies, I would like you to meet Sly Cooper." Jaden said almost proudly.

His brother revealed another card. This one looked an exact copy of the cane that Sly currently held. The cane materialized in front of Tennesee then changed into a copy of his rifle. The raccoon grabbed the new rifle then looked down the sight at Asami. (Atk:2600)

"That is the Cooper Family Cane equip spell card. It can only be quipped to a Cooper monster and when it is, the lucky Cooper gains a thousand ATK points." Jaden said

"You want me to light up her hand, partner?" Tenessee asked Jason who nodded. Tennessee looked down the sight of his gun and fired at Asami's hand and destroyed her second to last card.

Jason played another card. This one a spell card with an image of Tennessee sliding down a train track rail with a train right behind him.

"That's Rail Walk it allows Tennessee to attack directly this turn" Jaden said smiling

Jason played a spell card and Sly was suddenly covered in what appeared to be a pelt of a sabretooth tiger.

"raaar." Sly laughed he moved his arms in the skin.

"That's the Sabretooth Costume, the only equip spell I know of that only lasts for one turn. It allows Sly to attack you directly as well."

Jason pointed at Asami.

"You got it boss." Tennessee said as a train track appeared between him and Asami. He hopped on to the rail and slid down to where he was right in front of her. Instead of shooting her, as the girls assumed, he simply hit her with the butt of his gun reducing their life total.

Jason gestured for Sly to do the same. Sly crouched down till he was on all fours then leaped up, roaring like a tiger. He slashed down using the claws of the skin and hit Asami's disk reducing the girls' life total even further.

Alexis/Asami: 2200

Jaden/Jason: 5100

"Yeah, way to play." Syrus cheered from his boat, speaking for the first time in the duel.

Jason gave Alexis a second thumbs up and both the tracks and the sabretooth skin vanished.

The obelisk girl drew her card and looked over her hand. Then she placed a card on her disk, announcing

"I'll start by activating Polymerization. I will then discard my Blade Skater and my Etoile Cyber to fusion summon Cyber Blader."

The transparent images of the monsters she discarded flew into the air and started to swirl together to create a woman with pale blue skin and hair wearing an orange and white leotard. (Atk:2100/Def:800)

"Since together you boys have four monsters I can't activate her effect but I can attack. Cyber blader, Attack Jason's Sly with Whirlwind Blade." Alexis said

Seeing his brother in need of aid Jaden pressed a button on his duel disk revealing his face down. It looked to be a black lightning storm.

"I activate my trap, Evil Barrier." Jaden said "Since I have an evil hero on my field I can stop one attack."

The storm on the card image became holographic reality as the storm blew against Alexis's monster which was trying to move forward.

"In that case I end my turn with a face down." Alexis said placing a card on her disk. Unbeknownst to them, Crowler had slipped out of his hiding spot and was currently hiding jus behind Syrus's boat watching the whole thing take place.

Raven: 4000

Shade: 3800

"I end with a face down." Raven said

"Then it's my move." Shade hissed drawing her card. "I start by activating my trap card Burst Rebirth. This card allows me to pay two thousand life point to special summon one monster as if I had set it." A holographic image of the French assassin appeared along with a reversed card in front of shade. "Next I play the spell card Book of Taiyou. Which allows me to flip summon my Arno." Shade continued. The reversed card flipped up to reveal the familiar hooded man. "And finally I play Supremacy Berry. Which, since my life points are lower than yours, gives me back those two thousand points that I gave up to re-summon Arno." A white shining berry appeared in front of Shade then dissolved and raised Shade's life points back what it had been.

"Four cards just too simply get back a monster that is weaker than my own? You're losing your touch Shade." Raven said smiling.

"Ah, but here is where _you_ are mistaken. This deck has more than just monsters in it. I activate the equip spell card Mayan Armor." The spirit said. A set of golden armor appeared in front of Arno who put it on. (Atk:3000)

"Now Arno, attack with Redemption's Blade!" Shade ordered. Arno gripped his sword tighter and ran towards Phantom. He then Ran the master thief through and casually walked back to Shade's side of the field. Phantom shattered then reformed, on Shade's side of the field.

"Well this is disorienting." Phantom said.

Raven: 3500

Shade: 3800

"That's what's so fun about this monster; you can't win when I have him out." Shade gloated. "Now Phantom, attack your former master with Mille Aiguilles!" Phantom once again adjusted his grip on his cane and swung. But this time it was Raven that took the damage.

Raven: 1000

Shade: 3800

"I think I'll end my turn." Shade said, proud of her work.

 _Shit, that hurt. He must've used some sort of magic to make this duel real._ Raven thought

"My move." He said painfully, drawing his card "I play Regroup. This allows me to special summon one Legendary Hero monster from my hand. I chose to special summon Evan the Dragon Tamer in defense mode." The red robed mage appeared with her wand in a defensive position. "I activate her effect. Which allows me to special summon one 'Mir' Token in attack mode." A large black dragon appeared on the field. It was a very basic dragon except for a golden serpent like symbol on it's forehead. When Evan saw Phantom she looked confused more than anything else. (Atk:2000/Def:1000) (Atk:2500/Def:0)

"Raven, why is Phantom on the other side of the field?" she asked. Raven gestured at the hooded man on Shade's side of the field in response.

"A valiant effort, I'll give you that but too little too late." Shade taunted ignoring the interactions between the two.

"But I'm not done Shade. My Magician can still attack you and I think she will. Magician, attack him directly with Energy Orb." Raven said. His monster raised her wand and shot a glowing blue orb directly at Shade.

Raven: 1000

Shade: 3000

"I set one card facedown and end my turn." Raven announced as he set the card down, hoping he got to use it.

"My move and your last." Shade said gleefully, drawing her card

"You'd be surprised how many times I've heard that over my career as a duelist, you'd also be surprised how many I have beaten after they said that." Raven said thoughtfully.

"Whatever. I'll just attack you and be done with it. Arno, attack his Evan." Arno repeated his action from last turn and once again Raven's monster was re-summoned on Shade's side of the field. "Phantom, attack and destroy his magician." Raven watched as his monster whacked to death by his own monster

"I think I'll end with a face down" Shade said

"My move then" Raven said drawing his card "I activate my Heroes' Memories spell card, which lets me take one spell card from my graveyard and add it to my hand. I chose Regroup. And special summon Legendary Hero Luminous the Shattered Light in defense mode." The cards flipped up and materialized depending on which one it was. And the light themed hero appeared, his double sided staff at the ready.

"Now I activate his effect. I can destroy one monster on your field and gain life points equal to half of it's ATK points." Luminous' orb flew out and struck Arno with a whit beam of light. The light beam soon became misdirected and got absorbed by Arno's Mayan Armor. Luminous' spirit looked shocked that his effect didn't work.

"Impossible nothing can stop the light. It is the purest form of power there is." He said

"Oh did I not tell you? Once per turn the monster equipped with Mayan armor can't be destroyed by card effects" Shade explained then started laughing "but by all means take those life points, you'll need them."

Raven: 2500

Shade: 3000

"I end my turn" Raven said bitterly

"My draw" Shade said drawing her card "First I play Spell-book Inside the Pot making us both draw three cards." They both drew. "Next I play hand destruction. This card has us both discard two cards then draw two cards." They both discarded their cards then drew two more cards from their desks. "Now I activate the trap card Assault on G.H.Q. This card destroys one of my cards, like the useless Italian noble over here, and sending the top two cards of your deck into your grave" Raven sent the cards to his grave, starting to get fed up

"Just end this Shade there's no point in dragging this out longer than necessary. If you're going to finish me off, do so don't just play with me." Raven said annoyed.

"Very well, I play monster reborn to target the Legendary Hero Mercedes in you grave to my field. Then I set one card face down and end my turn." She said. The hero appeared from a portal of light that came out of the ground. She readied her bowguns and then noticed that she was fighting Raven and started to look uneasy. (Atk:2400/Def:1800)

"My move" Raven said "I start by playing the field spell World of Heroes. I use it's effect to special summon Experienced Hero: Ice Flash."

The field changed from the docks to a blueish world full of floating pieces of ground and multiple moons in the sky. On the level that Raven and Shade were on there were three different tombstones with ghosts that had human heads on them floating over them. A man in a green robes appeared from the ground where a tombstone had once sat. He wore green gloves and hat and carried a silver scaled staff with a glowing green gem on the top. (Atk:2500/Def:1000)

"The beauty of this card is that he can attack every monster you control. Now how can I make him better you ask, well it's very simple I can play this spell card that you so graciously allowed me to draw, Card of Strength. This spell card allows me to take the ATK points of one monster on the field and add them to one monster I say hello to the new and improved Ice Flash." A golden card appeared on the field in between Ice Flash and Arno the card sent out a beam of golden light to both of the monsters and connected them. (Atk:5500)

"Now Ice Flash attack Evan with Frozen Lightning!" the green spell caster raised his staff and shot out an ice shard that had lightning coursing all over it. It shot straight for Evan and impaled her. She shattered in a blast of lightning that arced over to Shade and completely obliterated her life points.

Raven: 2500 (winner)

Shade: 0

"Be gone Shade." Raven said threateningly as the holograms of the duel faded out of existence. "It's over."

"For now, my dear Raven, only for now." Shade said as he left the girl's body and returned back to his card.

Raven went over to the girl's unconscious body and dug through her pockets looking for his side deck. Just as he found his deck and had returned it to its rightful place in his pocket, the girl woke up.

"What happened?" she asked cautiously

"I'm guessing you found a side deck at some point today." Raven said not answering her question

"Yeah I did, it was in the gym." She responded holding her hand to her head

"Good." Raven said holding his hand out to help her up. "What's your name?"

"Melody." She replied accepting his hand and getting hauled to her feet

"Well, Melody, let's go find the nurse. You might have caught something sleepwalking around out here in the cold." Raven lied as he turned and walked back towards the main campus. Melody's face flickered slightly then she followed Raven back to the main campus.

Alexis/Asami: 2200

Jaden/Jason: 5100

"it's my move" Jaden said "I start by playing H – Heated Heart. Which increases my Inferno Wing's ATK points by 500."

Inferno Wing started to glow with an orange aura as her stats went up. (Atk:2600)

"Now inferno wing attack Alexis's Cyber Blader with Heated Inferno Blast" Jaden said pointing at the monster in question.

The fiend threw a fire ball, which quickly consumed it's target. Then flew over to Alexis and blasted her with it's hellish effect thoroughly depleting the girls' life points

Alexis/Asami: 0

Jaden/Jason: 5100 (winner)

"And that's game." Jaden said

As the holograms disappeared, the boys attached ropes from their boats to the girls' for transport back to the shore. Then they hopped into the boat Syrus occupied.

"Hey girls, you know the rules, we go free." Jaden said just before the other boys set up the oars in the boat. "But either way, that was a great duel." He then settled into the boat and started rowing with Syrus back to the Slifer Red side if the lake, as Jason didn't want to risk getting water in his injury from the slashing of the oars.

"You know when the other girls find out we didn't turn them in they're going to throw a fit, right?" Asami asked her friend

"Yes but I'm a fair player and they won, so I'll honor our agreement." Her friend replied

 _Those boys sure do make this school interesting._ Both girls thought as they rowed the boats back to shore.

Under the water near where his previous hiding spot had sat, Crowler hid having taken many pictures of the match but had been very careful not to include either Alexis or Asami in the pictures. What he didn't know was that by going into the water he had completely submerged the camera and had gotten the camera so wet that, by morning, the camera and every picture on it would be corrupted to the point of in-accessibility.

* A khopesh is a type of sword that was used by ancient Egyptians. They were curved, and usually were up to two feet long. The khopesh was designed specifically to hook an enemy's weapon, thus rendering it useless. It is basically the stereotypical pharaoh sword.

*to those of you who don't know; the butt of a rifle is the, usually wooden, part of the gun that you press against your shoulder when you're aiming and firing said gun. And the sight is the three little rods that are on the front and back of the barrel of the gun


	4. Chapter 4: In War, Victory

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason, Asami, and their respective deck ideas belong to SuperNeos2. The classes Raven cards are based off of belong to Nexon Korea. The only thing I own is Raven and his card ideas.

A/N: If you want to look at the images of the cards I made for Raven, they are all on my Deviant art account. I will leave a link to the first card on my profile page.

A/N 2: if anyone can tell me the origin of the title of the chapter, leave a review I honestly want to see who knows. Also sorry for the long update time my beta broke her finger.

A/N 3: the next chapter will, hopefully, be up quicker this time as i have already finished it and have sent it on to my beta.

Chapter Four

In War, Victory

"Please, lord Slifer let me pass this test please, please, please." Syrus said as he bowed and prayed before a picture of Slifer the sky dragon that was next to the bunk bed. He was in his pajamas with a red headband on that had three Monster Reborns tucked into it. Scattered around him were lit candles and various cards that belonged in his deck.

As Syrus continued on with his test passing ritual he accidentally woke up Jason. This was achieved by a misplaced bump of the elbow on the beam that served as the right corner of the beds. Jason rolled off the bed and shuffled over to the dresser at the corner of the bed. When he saw the blue haired boy praying to the portrait Jason's expression became one of confusion. He ignored it however and started to drag his twin off of the second bunk.

Syrus only looked up from his continued prayer when Jaden yelled in surprise as he fell from his bunk onto the floor which, in itself, created a racket that most likely woke up the entire first floor.

"Ah!" Syrus yelped as Jaden came crashing down. "No one has to know about this right?" he cupped his hands together and nearly pleaded

"Know about what?" Jaden asked as he glared at his brother who merely raised his one visible eyebrow.

"N-Nothing." Syrus stammered as he collected his candles and his head band that had fallen off in the commotion of Jaden's awakening. With their staring contest done the twins went about getting ready with Jason sometimes making hand gestures at Jaden every now and then and Jaden handing him various things from around the room.

"Y-y-y-you were born like that, right?" Syrus suddenly stuttered. Both boys looked up from what they were doing with confusion on their faces.

"Like what? Jaden asked for them after glancing at his brother

"Jason, you were born mute right?" Syrus asked looking at his feet.

Comprehension dawned on the boys' faces. Jason nodded when Syrus looked at up them. He then suddenly swayed, grabbed his head, and started to lean against the wall.

"Jason!" Jaden cried as his brother slumped against the wall, unconscious. "Help! Syrus get Chumley!" the small boy rushed out of the room to get the koala like senior.

* * *

"Good news is that he's stable" Fonda, the school nurse, said "bad news is that he fainted and for someone in his condition that could be deadly. You said this has happened before?"

"Yeah but that was years ago." Jaden said as he looked sadly at his comatose brother. He had hoped this wouldn't happen again. He had used the power of the supreme king to partially heal Jason in the hope that he could live normally.

"Give this to your teachers today. It explains why Jason is absent." Fonda said drawing Jaden back into the present. He took the slip of paper she offered him then sadly walked out of the room and to the waiting Syrus and Chumley.

"Is he ok?" Syrus asked Jaden. The three boys had hauled ass getting Jason to the nurse after he had fainted, with Chumley and Jaden holding his arms and legs as they ran and Syrus clearing the way.

"Yeah he's fine, just needs rest is all. He probably won't leave the infirmary today. But he'll be fine." the brown haired boy said wearily as they went to their class. Back in the infirmary Jason woke up. Fonda turned to him and smiled.

"Look who's up, you fainted." she explained "You're in the infirmary. You're going to have to stay here for the day to make sure it doesn't happen again. But in the meantime, when was the last time those bandages were swapped out?" she started to pull out a roll of bandages from a nearby cupboard. Jason sighed. So it had returned. Perfect.

"Can you take off your current bandages?" Fonda asked as she came back to his bed side. He unwound the bandages that surrounded his head then sat up so she could wrap new ones.

"You're very lucky to have survived what you did." she said as she wrapped up his injury

 _No I'm not lucky. Lucky would've been dying from this so I didn't have to live with this sort of thing all my life._ Jason thought once the bandages were completely wrapped up

* * *

Jaden was on autopilot for that class. He walked, not caring that Chumly had disappeared almost instantly saying something about skipping a test, into the class. He showed Dr. Banner the note from Fonda then returned to his seat ignoring the words that the blues threw at him.

He took the test that Syrus had been praying for and then stared off into space waiting for the class to be over.

"Hey slacker, where's gimpy?" a snide voice called out. Chazz, who else could it be? Jaden could think of many ways that he could have made his life miserable but instead flipped him off and continued to stare at the ceiling.

"Incoming." Yubel warned as a ball of paper flew across the room and through her insubstantial body. It hit Jaden in the head and he picked it up and uncurled it.

 _Me and Asami want to know, where's Jason?_

 _Alexis (italics end)_

Jaden wrote on the other side of the paper. _He's in the infirmary._ He then threw the paper back once Banner's back was turned.

"He's going to be okay you know? The power of the gentle darkness could not hold his condition at bay forever but he's a strong one." Yubel said before once again saying "incoming."

This time Jaden raised his head to see who was throwing at him, only to see several wads of paper seem to stop in midair then fly back across the room and back to several obelisk blues. Jaden noticed a glint of gold in the back row and saw Raven calmly twirling a golden card through his fingers grinning slightly.

Yubel looked at the thief and saw him twirling the card. That's interesting.

"Well there's something you don't see every day." Jaden muttered as he watched Raven slip the card into his pocket. Jaden noticed another piece of paper flying across the room. This time it wasn't stopped and he caught it.

 _Is he ok? Asami._ Jaden gave the girls a thumbs up then went back to staring.

"Alright students, the test is over. Set your papers on your desk and then proceed to the card shop to get your new rare cards." Banner said after clearing his throat

"New cards?" a Ra gasped.

"Oh dear." Banner said his eyes widening a little as nearly every student rushed out of the room, eager to get to the card shop.

Jaden was one of seven people remaining. Syrus and the girls made four as well as Raven, Banner and a Ra.

"You guys are not getting new cards?" Jaden asked them.

"No, we trust our decks." Alexis said getting out of her desk. Jaden looked at the Ra.

"I can't risk offsetting the delicate balance of my deck by an errant card. My name's Bastion by the way." The Ra, Bastion, said.

"Good luck finding cards that match my deck." Raven muttered after chuckling quietly to himself.

"Well, my cards are rather easy to find." Syrus said just before he bolted from the room.

Jaden looked at the girls waiting for them to ask the question that everyone who cared had asked.

"Is Jason ok? Why's he in the infirmary?" Asami asked

"He's fine, and he passed out this morning." Jaden answered worriedly.

"He'll be fine." Yubel repeated, unheard by the girls

Jaden couldn't help but notice that people here had yet to ask about Jason's bandages they simply took that it was because he was injured and needed them, while the people they had known back home had never let up about it, asking why specifically Jason needed them and what they were for. The people here respected Jason in a lot of ways that the people back home hadn't and that surprised Jaden quite a bit. Then again there were still people that just had to jibe at Jason somehow, a specific spikey haired obelisk came to mind almost immediately.

"He's fine just needs a day of rest is all." Jaden answered the girls watching as Raven bent down to pick up something shiny off of the floor, grinning slightly. "I'll be sure to send him your regards."

* * *

Raven picked up the coin he had spotted earlier with eagerness. It wasn't much, just a shiny quarter, but it gave him something to do during the test today. He walked out of the room and to the card shop. Phantom had restricted his skill card usage because he'd said that "a good thief shouldn't rely on anything to get the job done."

Raven had found it very boring walking where he wanted to go but he learned more than he did by using Shrouded Flash to get everywhere. He got to the shop with no intention of buying any new cards. Good thing too, as it looked like there were no cards left in the entire shop.

"A clean job don't you think?" Phantom said from beside him, causing him to jump slightly.

"What do you mean?" Raven asked turning to his mentor. Phantom gestured to the stand, watching as some students started to get angry at Dorothy, the cards shop owner.

"The theft, a clean job, don't you agree?" Phantom said smiling slightly. "That reminds me. Let's see how good your observation skills are."

"Back up real quick." Raven said cutting Phantom off. "You think the cards were stolen?"

"Use your eyes. Or even better let's make this interesting. Find the thief and steal the cards back. Locate him or her and then we'll see if I can give you another skill card. Fair?" Phantom said drawing a golden card from his pocket.

"Okay deal." Raven said. He closed his eyes for a second, trying to stealthily draw out his Eye of Phantom card without Phantom noticing.

"Without cards, please." Phantom said in a voice that suggested that he was smirking.

Raven sighed then opened his eyes, looking over the scene. Even without the detection card he had pretty good sight if he knew what he was looking for.

Dorothy stood trying to calm the students that all wanted at least one rare card, whether it fit in their deck or not. No cards on the shelves, not one but slight scratches on the glass where eager students had accidentally scraped a ring or other jewelry on it. No signs of forced entry on either of the windows.

"Okay so, all of the cards are missing. Dorothy either has no idea where they are or is too focused on the mass of students on her hands to be seriously worried at this moment. There is no sign of the thief coming in through the windows which either means he or she is very good or that he or she quite literally walked in and walked out with all of the cards." Raven listed off on his fingers "Did I miss anything?"

"Yes, but only a couple of things." Phantom said, also looking over the scene. "None of the common cards are missing. Which normally, they wouldn't be on display but if you look closely you can see a pack of cards sticking out behind the counter. Also don't you think it's odd that specifically on the day that all the rare cards came in _and_ on the day of the test that someone decides to steal the cards?" Raven thought about it quickly.

"That would mean that our thief is either a desperate student or a teacher who really wants a specific student to win." He said his eyes flicking back and forth very quickly as if he was reading something.

"Very good." Phantom said beaming "I had just come to that conclusion myself. Now to get you started on the correct path. Who do we know that despises a student or two and would do anything to see him or her kicked out of the academy?" and with that he disappeared into the deck, leaving Raven with his test.

He stood back and watched the mayhem die down as the student realized there was no point in harassing Dorothy for cards she obviously didn't have. He watched as Syrus ran into the shop, though how he got here later than Raven was a mystery to him, and then left, sulking, once he saw that were no new cards. Raven left his spot shortly after that as he wasn't coming up with the answer by just standing there.

"Will all students please report to the dueling arena. Will all students please report to the dueling ring at this time." Crowler's voice said over the loud speakers. Raven looked up from the floor directly in front of him. Why hadn't he thought of that sooner?

* * *

Jason sighed. He was still in the infirmary, sitting in bed, when he would much prefer to be taking the test with Jaden. He was looking through his cards at the moment, making the deck edits that he would have made for the test today. At the foot of his bed hovered three of his four favorite duel spirits. Sly, Tennessee, and Galleth looked at him sadly, brought to life via the power of Yubel, a welcome back present for when he woke up after the accident. They were scared that Jason would die of his injuries. They weren't the only ones, Jason was scared too.

Jaden came in with Alexis and Asami in tow. He looked over at them and noticed that another person was coming in. he was the Ra yellow that they had seen during the admissions tests, the smart ass that had beaten the proctor with Ring of Destruction.

"Hey bro. how's it going?" Jaden asked his voice thick with concern. He gestured to the Ra and the girls. "The girls and Bastion here wanted to wish you well."

"You feeling alright, Jason?" Alexis asked. Jason shrugged. It was the closest he got with any lengthy explanation. Bastion looked at Jason with a mix of pity and admiration.

"My bro's a tough guy, you guys don't need to worry" Jaden said as he sat at the edge of the bed.

"We're his friends." Asami said almost glaring at Jaden.

 _This is after you forced us to duel you for our friend's and our own freedom. Yeah that's real friend material_ Jason thought sarcastically. Given the tilt of his brother's head, Jason could tell that Jaden thought the same. But maybe they were wrong. After all they had come here to see him. And it's not like he and Jaden had much experience to go off of.

"Will all students please report to the dueling ring. Will all students please report to the dueling ring at this time." Crowler's voice said over the loud speakers.

Jaden got up reluctantly, turned and smiled at his brother then left to go beat some poor unfortunate duelist in a duel. The others followed him out.

* * *

Raven was crouching in the rafters of the arena, courtesy of a maintenance hatch he had found earlier that week. From here he could see the entire arena with little difficulty. But what interested him the most at this moment was the fact that Dr. Crowler was judging a match. While that in itself wasn't very interesting, Raven thought it a bit convenient that Crowler just happened to be judging a match that was between Jaden and Chazz. He had spotted the tourney style roster as he walked into the stands and was now watching to make sure that he hadn't missed anything crucial.

Crowler was standing on the center line of the arena, waiting for Jaden to arrive. Chazz was looking bored, standing at the other end of the arena, with nothing to do except wait for his opponent. Jaden walked into the arena with Alexis, Asami, and Bastion on his heels. When he saw the board and his opponent to be he smiled almost evilly.

"Ah finally." Crowler exclaimed. "Jaden, you beat me and other students claim you are the best duelist around. So I decided to pull some strings and change your opponent to one of the best obelisks in the school. You can thank me later."

"Trap." Alexis muttered

"Oh definitely." Asami agreed quietly

"I don't believe that that is possible. The rules quite clearly forbid it." Bastion said in a contemplative tone.

"I'm in." Jaden said looking, for the first time that day, quite happy. Everyone gasped at Jaden's answer.

 _Either Chazz is in on this theft or he's about to get his ass beat by Jaden._ Raven thought. _Either way this should be fun to sit back and watch._

Jaden walked onto his side of the arena and activated his disk. As he did Crowler walked into the center of the arena.

"Now, let's see how good you really are, Slacker." Chazz said

"You'll see alright, I've got some unfinished business with you after the duel in the forest arena. This is from Jason as well. So get your game on, you're going to need it." Jaden growled as he thought of the duel with Raven and Chazz. Crowler flipped a coin the pointed to Chazz.

"Chazz will go first. Begin!" he announced then ran off to the side of the arena to act as standing ref.

"Let's duel!" they both said at the same time.

Chazz: 4000

Jaden: 4000

"I guess I'm going first slacker." Chazz said. "I start by playing Magical Mallet which allows me to shuffle any number of cards from my hand back into the deck and then draw the same number of cards." He put three cards back into his deck then shuffled and drew three cards.

"Now I play V-Tiger Jet" Chazz announced. A turquoise and gold tiger shaped jet appeared. (Atk:1600/Def:1800) "I'll set two cards face down then end my turn." He did so and the holographic images appeared.

"My move." Jaden announced as he drew his card. "I'll start by playing Evil Hero Defender in defense mode." He slapped the card onto his disk.

A dark warrior appeared. He wore black, full plate mail with spikes coming out of pauldrons. On his armor was nothing other than a blood red "E" that was painted over his left side of his chest plate. He had gauntlets that had claws like things coming out of the knuckles, carried a shield that was about the size of his body, and had a helmet that, like Inferno Wing, covered every part of his face other than a malicious sneer. He knelt behind the massive shield. (Atk:500/Def:2500)

"Then I play the spell card Double Summon to summon my Evil Hero Dark Warrior in attack mode in addition to my Defender. With that I throw down a facedown and end my turn." Jaden said placing the three cards on his disk.

The new hero was a pale man with dark black hair and the signature Evil Hero sneer on his face. He wore black chainmail armor that had no other decoration. In his hand he carried a long barbed, serrated spear and in his other he held a black buckler* that sported a depiction of a skull. (Atk:2000/Def:1800)

"Well that was underwhelming, my draw." Chazz drawled swiping his card from his disk "I start with another Magical Mallet." He placed two cards back onto his deck and started to shuffle, then drew the same amount as he put in.

"Oh come on. Not again." Syrus complained from his spot in the stands.

"You're right, with that spell Chazz can redraw his hand any time he wants." Bastion agreed from behind Syrus causing the blue haired boy to jump slightly, as he had not noticed the Ra or the obelisk girls come up behind him.

"Now I summon W- Wing Catapult in attack mode." Chazz continued as a giant blue jetpack looking thing appeared on the battle field. (Atk:1300/Def:1500)

 _Found you._ Raven thought. _Now to find a way to get them back._ He started to move back to the access hatch, already starting to think of ways to get the cards back onto the shelves of the card shop.

"Now I use the effect of my two monsters to special summon the contact fusion monster VW- Tiger Catapult. Rise!" Chazz commanded.

His W- Wing Catapult and V- Tiger Jet started to transform and combine together in a way that was unlike any fusion summon any one had ever seen. The jetpack started to open up panels on the top of it and fold in its wings while the tiger shaped jet folded its leg looking landing gear back to where the legs were pressed to the jet's sides. The two machines then landed on each other turning it into a giant tiger like multilayered let. (Atk:2000/Def:2100)

"I now use his special ability. I can discard one card to change the battle position of one of your monsters. Like your Defender for example." Chazz said as he discarded a card from his hand.

The double decker jet fired two missiles at Jaden's Evil Hero. The armored fiend started to cough as the missiles exploded around him filling his card space with grey smoke. He stood up and stopped coughing.

"Now attack his Defender! Heat Seeking Blitz!" Chazz pointed at Jaden's now standing monster. The jet launched another set of missiles at defender and Chazz grinned evilly. Jaden hurriedly pressed a button on his disk.

"I had hoped to save this for later but I activate my trap, Evil Mirror." Jaden said, relieving his card "When I activate this card I can change the attack target from one of my Evil Hero monsters to another. In this case I can save my Defender by changing the attack target to my Dark Warrior."

A mirror appeared in front of both of Jaden's monsters switching the images of the monsters to where Defender looked like Dark Warrior and vice versa. The missiles that Chazz's jet like monster had fired suddenly changed course and struck Dark Warrior. The resulting explosion destroyed the scout like warrior. The two duelists watched as Dark Warrior's spear flew out of the smoke and hit VW, causing it to explode as well.

"Yeah, way to play Jay." Syrus cheered from the side lines

"I end my turn." Chazz said

"Okay then." Jaden said as he drew his card "I'll start by switching my Defender back into defense mode then throw down a couple of facedowns and call it a turn." The reversed cards appeared on his field as he depleted his hand.

"My move then" Chazz said drawing his card "I'll start by activating Frontline Base. With this card I can special summon one union monster from my hand each turn." One of his three reversed cards flipped over to reveal a continuous spell card.

"I choose Y- Dragon Head in attack mode. Now, as I can still normal summon this turn, I play X- Head Cannon in attack mode. Next I activate my trap card, Roll Out! This allows me to take a union monster in my graveyard and equip it to a compatible monster I control. So rise Z- Metal Tank and equip yourself to X- Head Cannon."

"When did that get in his graveyard?" Asami asked

"He must have discarded it when he used VW's effect." Bastion said, watching the duel contemplatively.

As Chazz had been speaking, he had pressed several buttons on his disk. First he had slapped a monster card onto his disk for the effect of Frontline. What had appeared was a mechanical red dragon that roared as soon as it was summoned. Next he played another monster, this one looking like a floating anti-aircraft turret that had a wrecking ball hanging underneath it. It was yellow and blue and had arms and a head that most would have deemed unnecessary. Finally Chazz pressed a button on his disk revealing a trap with what looked like a robot centaur surrounded by lightning. He then took a card from his grave and slid it into his spell and trap card zone.

A yellow tank appeared under X- Head Cannon and connected to the wrecking ball portion of the robot. The two monsters made a whirring sound as they combined together and increased X's stats. (Atk:2400/Def:2100)

"Oh no." Asami said

"How the hell did Chazz get them?" Alexis asked in astonishment to no one in particular

"I'm wondering the same thing. That set of monster is seconded only to the Blue Eyes Dragons that are owned by Kaiba, if my calculations are correct." Bastion said with a notepad with several mathematical equations on it in his hand.

"If you think that's bad wait till you get a load of this." Chazz said with glee. "I remove from play X- Head Cannon, Y- Dragon Head, and Z- Metal Tank to contact fusion summon the one, the only, XYZ- Dragon Cannon!"

The three machines started to rearrange themselves much like how V- Tiger Jet and W- Wing Catapult did when they were combined. X separated from Z then attached itself to the now wingless Y. Then both monsters landed on top of Z, creating a giant, slightly humanoid, robot that had over two thousand ATK points. (Atk:2800/Def:2600)

"Since I don't have any cards in my hand, I can't use his effect but that doesn't mean I can't attack. Go, attack his Defender with Cannon Firestorm." All of the turrets on Chazz's monster started to glow with power.

"Nice try Chazz but I activate my trap, Negate Attack." Jaden said revealing his card. "As the name suggests this card stops your monster from attacking and ends your battle phase."

"Fine, slacker, I end my turn." Chazz grumbled

"How's he doing?" Raven asked from behind Syrus and the others causing them to jump, which in turn caused him to grin. That never got old. He had gone down to the dock in the hope that there were spare rare cards there. Having found many crates full he had led Dorothy to them and had moved behind Jaden's friends to watch the remainder of the duel.

"Nobody's lost any life points yet but Jaden's staring down a giant monster with only one monster on the field." Alexis explained

"You do know I can see half of what you just said right?" Raven asked. "I was asking for the score, mainly. Don't repeat it." he added quickly, raising his raised as if to push away her words. Alexis chuckled then turned her attention back to the game which was starting to get interesting.

Jaden drew his card and looked at it, thinking. _There's no way I can pull this off._ He thought. _He's got that giant robot ready and waiting to destroy any card I play. Well here goes._

"I start by activating Defender's effect. If he's in defense mode during my draw phase then I can draw two more cards." Jaden said as he drew the cards. "Now I'll play Card of Sanctity. This forces us both to draw till we have six cards in our hand." The young king said sliding the card into his disk. Both boys drew.

"You must be going daft, Slacker. You do realize you've only given me more of a chance to destroy you." Chazz taunted

"Chazz is right. What's he doing?" Syrus asked, worried for his friend "He's just giving Chazz more to work with. This can't possibly help him."

"That's where you're wrong." Raven said looking through the Eye of Phantom to see the cards that Jaden had drawn, unrestricted now that he had passed Phantom's test. "He's playing smart. He drew a card that allowed him to replenish his hand, and while it helped Chazz more than it did him at the time, he realized that to win the duel he needed options. So yes it does help him, in the long run."

Unnoticed by him Asami was staring out of the corner of her eye at the mark that was now glowing in Raven's eye. The mark was blue and white. It appeared to be like a short plague doctor* mask, with a long, almost beak like nose. Half of it was blue and the other half white, with the top where the eyes were being blue on the left and white on the right and a line separating the nose having the colors alternate on the bottom. Two holes sat where the eyes would be visible from. Eight points like long blade like white feathers surrounded the outside of the mask. Around the outside there was an inner ring that seemed to have a simple tribal pattern running along it, and a simple outer ring followed that one. Light white cards seemed to surround the mark, inside and out. Each card was facing a different direction and seemed to be floating there rather than a portion of the mark itself. All of this was surrounded by a sea of violet, giving it an eerie look.

"I then play Evil Hero Infernal Gainer in attack mode." Jaden continued his turn. A warrior with blue-grey skeletal looking armor and a tail appeared. (Atk:1600/Def:0) "I'll end my turn there, your go Chazz."

"Yes it is, Slacker." Chazz said as he drew his card. "I start by activating my Return from a Different Dimension trap card. This card allows me to pay half my life points to special summon as many of my banished monsters as possible. I choose V- Tiger Jet, W- Wing Catapult, X- Head Cannon, and Z- metal Tank.

"You know what's coming now don't you Jaden? I fusion summon a second VW- Tiger Catapult." Once again the two flying monsters formed into the now familiar double decker jet. (Atk:2000/Def:2100)

"Well Chazz you know what they say about old dogs and tricks. I think you fit the bill there." Jaden laughed

"Shut up, Slifer Trash." Chazz hissed "You want new tricks? How about this one? With my two monsters here, I can fusion summon my ultimate monster. Combine, my monsters, create the all-powerful VWXYZ- Dragon Catapult Cannon!"

The two robot monsters separated into their five components then transformed into a giant robot with the head of V, the body of X, the arms made out of Z, legs made out of W, and wings and crotch area made out of Y. (Atk:3000/Def:2800)

"Now before I do anything else I remove from play my X- Head Cannon and my Z- Metal Tank to fusion summon XZ- Tank Cannon." The two monsters combined in a way that was identical to how they had formed when Z was equipped to X. (Atk:2400/Def:2100)

"Wow." Alexis said, wide eyed

"You got to hand it to Chazz that was a good play." Asami said

"Syrus, it appears that I owe you an apology." Raven said.

"Now let's get rid of that Defender of yours. Go Destruction Missile!" Chazz pointed at Jaden's monster. V to Z pointed all of its cannons at the shield bearing monster then fired, completely destroying it.

"Now XZ- Tank Cannon, attack his Gainer with Assault Rocket!" Chazz ordered. The turrets on the X portion of the robot shot at Infernal Gainer, destroying it in a small explosion. Then the barrels on the Z portion of the robot shot at Jaden reducing his life points.

Chazz: 2000

Jaden: 3400

"I activate my trap, Evil Signal. With this, I can special summon one level four or lower Evil Hero from my deck. And I choose Evil Hero Dark Knight, in defense mode." Jaden said activating one of his facedowns

A black haired man appeared. He wore a black and tan leather vest. Underneath that he wore black scaled armor. The bracers he wore had sharp looking fins on them and were made of leather as well. His boots were made layered leather and had fins similar to those on his bracers. In his hand he carried a single long sword. (Atk:1500/Def:1000)

"Now my monster's effect activates. For every Evil Hero in my graveyard, he gets an additional three hundred ATK and DEF points." Jaden said smugly as a blood red aura surrounded his new hero. (Atk:2400/Def:1900)

"Very well, but it won't save you. Watch as I destroy him too. Now my monster attack him directly him with Ultimate Destruction!" Chazz ordered. The giant robot fired at Jaden's new monster, utterly obliterating him.

"Good thing Jaden summoned him in defense mode." Syrus said

"Yes it is." Alexis agreed

"My move then?" Jaden asked his hand on his card.

"Make your move." Chazz replied, setting three cards facedown on disk and letting the unspoken _it'll be your last_ hang in the air

"Okay then, my go" Jaden said as he drew his card. "I special summon Evil Hero Infernal Prodigy with his own effect. Then I tribute him to normal summon Evil Hero Malicious Edge."

A dark Wolverine like monster appeared on the field. (Atk:2600/Def:1800)

"What's he doing? Malicious edge is too weak to do anything to that horror" Syrus asked worried

"Next I activate H- Heated heart. This card grants my malicious edge an additional 500 ATK points." Jaden continued

Edge laughed as his ATK points were raised. (Atk:3100)

"Yeah, now he can get rid of Chazz's monster" Syrus cheered causing Raven to grin slightly at the small boy's actions.

"I'll still beat you, Slacker." Chazz said nonchalantly. "And once I do I'll go after your gimp of a brother next." Raven winced. _That was not smart, Chazz._ He thought.

"Now I play Vicious Claw to increase Edge's ATK points even more." Jaden said his eyes flashing dangerously

Edges claws elongated and sharpened into things that looked like talons than claws. (Atk:3400)

"Now Malicious Edge attack his V to Z! Malicious Slash!" Jaden ordered, pointing at his opponent's massive monster.

Edge grinned broadly and then ran at the giant robot. He slashed the robot two times in the knees then stood back and watched as the robot fell down, sending bits of machinery flying in all directions.

Chazz: 1600

Jaden: 3400

"I would recommend not getting in his line of fire." Phantom said from beside Raven. Raven only nodded.

"I end my turn." Jaden growled as the red aura around Edge disappeared. (Atk:2900)

"My draw." Chazz said. "I activate Burial from a Different Dimension. This card returns up to three monsters from my banished to my graveyard. I choose X- head Cannon and Z- Metal Tank. I then activate Monster Reborn and Call of the haunted to special summon those monsters to my field. Then with the effect of Frontline Base I summon Y- Dragon head onto the field."

The three monsters appeared on the field, making mechanical noises as they did so.

"I then send my monsters from whence they came to summon, once again, the XYZ- Dragon Cannon!" Chazz continued, laughing as he finished his sentence

The three monsters formed the robot tank once more. (Atk:2800/Def:2600)

"Does Chazz not know how to summon any other monsters?" Raven joked, earning a few chuckles from the assembled Ra, Slifer and Obelisks.

"This _is_ getting a little repetitive." Asami noted.

"Now I activate my monster's effect. By discarding one card from my hand I can destroy one card on your field. I chose to destroy your only monster. Then I'll attack you directly with Cannon Firestorm!" Chazz said smugly pointing at Jaden's now empty board, aside from a single facedown.

Once against all of the cannons glowed with power only this time they fired a barrage of Lasers that exploded around Jaden, reducing his life points significantly.

Chazz: 1600

Jaden: 600

"He's lucky that Chazz doesn't have his VW out right now. If he did, this duel would be over right now." Raven noted

"But Jaden can still pull through right?" Syrus asked

"Oh sure, if he has the right card in his hand." Raven replied.

"So what's the chance of him drawing or having the right card in his hand?" Asami asked

" _That_ is the million dollar question." Raven said, crossing his arms.

"I end my turn." Chazz said reluctantly as if wishing he could inflict some more damage to the brown haired Slifer. Jaden drew.

"I play Dark Fusion. You know this card right, Chazz? With this card I discard Elemental Heroes Bubbleman and Avian to dark fusion summon Evil Hero Sailor." He said.

A hero with black hair, a full beard, and malicious sneer on his face appeared. He wore a black over coat that was red on the underside. He wore a gold medallion that was shaped like a cross made of skulls. The ends of his sleeves were folded back and had red tassels hanging from the end of his right sleeve. Under the overcoat he wore a black shirt that was buttoned up all the way except for the last button. His pants were similar. On his head sat a large tri-point hat and an eye patch. In his hand he held a medium sized anchor attached to a chain. (Atk:1400/Def:1000)

His spirit turned to Jaden and bowed deeply.

"My king I am ready to fight, let them fear the day you use me again." The pirate like Hero said. Jaden grinned wickedly and nodded. _Yes lets. Here's for you Jason._

"Now with that out of the way I activate Sailors effect. For every spell or trap card on the field he gains 200 ATK points and by my count there are six cards that fit that description out right now." Jaden said, still grinning.

Sailor was surrounded by a greenish, white aura, while all of the facedowns and Chazz's Frontline Base's images grew darker, and laughed as his stats went up. (Atk:2600)

"Now I activate his other ability. So long as I control a spell or trap card then my pirate friend can attack you directly. Attack him with Anchor Smash!" the young Slifer commanded, pointing to his opponent.

Sailor jumped up from his spot on the field twirling the anchor like a Kusarigama.* He then let the anchor fly and watched as it struck Chazz right in the chest.

Chazz: 0

Jaden: 600 (winner)

"Nice game, bro" Jaden said, returning to his own joyous self

"Congratulations Jaden." Chancellor Shepard said from the teacher's booth over the stands. "It's not every Slifer that can beat an Obelisk Blue. Therefore, I am proud to promote you to the rank of Ra Yellow."

"Well looks like Jaden will be joining me in Ra." Bastion said. "That'll definitely give me someone to practice with who's up to my level."

"Poor Jason," Asami said "he won't even be able to say good bye, will he?"

"Do you honestly think for a moment that Jaden would ever leave Jason?" Raven asked, incredulous. "I've only talked to them once and I know for a fact that Jaden would do anything for Jason."

Jaden walked out of the arena and joined them.

"Nice job Jaden." Alexis said.

"Way to play, Jay." Syrus cheered.

"Good show, Jaden. And allow me to be the first to welcome you to Ra Yellow." Bastion said shaking Jaden's hand as if this was the first time they had met. Raven just turned away from Jaden and his friends.

When left the others it was nearly thirty minutes later, another duel had started and Jaden was walking to the infirmary to go see Jason. On the way he saw a chalk board standing outside of the card shop. _New rare cards here._ The sign read. Jaden saw a flash of gold and noticed Raven leaning against the wall opposite them, watching the students now flowing into the card shop and twirling a gold card through his fingers. Funny, Jaden hadn't noticed him before. It seemed like Jaden saw Raven only when the young thief wanted him to.

* * *

Jason was laying on his bed, bored out of his mind. He had rearranged his cards ten times, tried to sleep and failed, and finally tried to pass the time by flipping a coin that he had found by his bed. It was when Nurse Fonda had turned on the duel that Jason wasn't quite so bored. He had watched his brother beat Chazz rather heartily, and was now back to flipping the coin over and over. Sly had suggested a few ways to make it a bit more interesting, by counting the heads and tails mainly, but Jason soon lost track of it. Jaden walked in just as the coin slapped against the palm of Jason's hand.

"Hey, how's it going?" Jaden asked, eying the coin and sitting down on the edge of the bed Jason inhabited. Jason started making hand signs, dropping the coin in the process.

"I'm bored out of my mind, but other than that I'm ok." He 'said'. Jaden chuckled at his response. "I should be back in the Slifer dorm in an hour or two." Jason's eye widened and he started digging through his pockets. He then drew out a five dollar bill and handed it to Jaden.

"What's this for?" his twin asked.

"Our bet last night. You bet that it was Syrus in the row boat and I accepted." Jason 'explained' after setting the money on his lap. Jaden smiled at his brother and Jason smiled back before setting the money into Jaden's palm.

"Hey I got to go talk to Chancellor Shepard, I just wanted to check in on ya before I did so. Need anything while I'm up and about?" Jaden asked getting off of the bed

"A new, more caring, brother?" Jason 'asked' with a shit eating grin on his face. Jaden laughed at that.

"I'll see what I can do." He chuckled as he walked out of the room, waving a little as he did so.

* * *

"So you want to stay in Slifer red?" Chancellor Shepard asked, his chin resting on his clasped hands.

"Yes sir." Jaden replied seriously "I want to stay near my brother, in case something like what happened today happens again."

"Well alright, Jaden, you can stay in Slifer Red, but do know that next time you may not be able to weasel out of it." Chancellor Shepard joked. Jaden smiled, gave him a thumbs up and walked out of the room.

* * *

In the dorm that housed Jaden, Jason, and Syrus a small party was going on. Chumley, Jason and Syrus were all celebrating the E-Hero duelist's rise through the ranks of the school. Jason held up one of the bottles of water that the three boys had been using as toasting glasses. He also held up a sheet of paper on which the words: _To my brother. For making it past the red dorm and for leaving us behind in the dust._ Were written. Jason was smiling as much as possible so the other boys knew it was a joke. Jason was happy for his brother. He knew that Jaden was far too good a duelist to remain in red.

"Hey Syrus you going to stand there all day or are you going to help me with these grilled cheese." Chumley asked from the small stove that was in the corner of the room.

"I can't believe he didn't even say goodbye." Syrus mumbled as he took a plate loaded with grilled cheese from Chumley. Jason had thought of that as well, but didn't think much on it. Jaden deserved to be in yellow now here in the cockroach infested red dorm. Speaking of which, Jason brushed a cockroach off of his pants and took a grilled cheese, just as Jaden burst into the room and grabbed a grilled cheese.

"Who said anything about goodbyes?" he asked. Syrus jumped on him and started to hug him fiercely.

"Jaden! What are you doing here? Not that I'm not glad you're here but why aren't you at the Ra dorm?" Syrus babbled still hugging the brown haired boy.

"I came to congratulate you on passing your field test today, you too Chumley. Plus I kind of live here or did you not notice?" Jaden explained and joked.

"Licious, now we can have a real party." Chumley said taking the last of the grilled cheeses off of the oven.

"Wait, you said you live here? Aren't you in Ra?" Syrus asked pulling away from Jaden.

"Yeah, sure Ra is cleaner, has less cockroaches, and has better food but without Jason and you two, it's just not home." Jaden said shaking his head and pulling Syrus off of him. Jason looked at his brother with a watery eye. He made to get up to hug him but was beaten to the punch by Syrus who leapt at Jaden again and started to cry.

"I thought I had lost you." He cried into Jaden's jacket

"Hey chill out Sy, I'm not going anywhere." Jaden said recoiling a bit as the young boy's grip around him tightened

"Oh come on Jay, just a few more hugs?" Syrus asked still hugging Jaden.

"It's not the hugs I've got a problem with." Jaden said. This was obviously the wrong thing to say as Syrus hugged him tighter still and started to cry even again. "I amend my previous statement, I might just be washed down stream if the water works keeps up as it is."

Chumley laughed while Jason just smiled.

* A buckler is a small shield that only covers about half of the user's forearm. It was mainly designed to direct blows away from the body without much effort; practice was required to get this technique correct however. This design was different from most types of shields as those were mainly designed to take the full force of the blow and required little to no skill in their usage.

*a plague doctor was somebody who tried to heal infected people during the black plague, in theory. In reality most were common folk who had no idea what they were doing and just trying to make a quick buck. The one thing that was constant from doctor to doctor were the masks they wore. These were said to be worn by doctors to heal patients without getting sick. Think the masks for the doctors from Assassin's Creed 2 and you've got it on the nose.

*a Kusarigama is a Japanese weapon consisting of a handle attached to a weighted chain. The weight can vary from an actual blade to just a metal ball. It's main purpose was to wrap around the opponent's weapon or to just wallop them to death with the weight as the weapon's use usually required spinning it over the user's head. If you've seen Yu-Gi-Oh 5ds think Goyo Guardian's weapon and you're close


	5. Chapter 5: The Titan's Wrath

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason, Asami, and their respective deck ideas belong to SuperNeos2. The classes Raven cards are based off of belong to Nexon Korea. The only thing I own is Raven and his card ideas. Melody belongs to me but the game events and characters that her deck is based off of belong to ubisoft.

A/N: since i have been forgetting to do so i would like to thank Godsofancientpast for beta reading this chapter and every other chapter i have posted on this story.

Chapter Five

Shadows of the Mind part 1: The Titan's Wrath

A few months after the field tests, Jaden, Jason, Syrus and Chumley sat around a table in Chumley's room. It was close to Halloween at Duel Academy and the boys were playing a scary story game to get into the spirit.

"Okay, Jaden your turn." Syrus said after he finished a less than stellar story about drowning. Jaden took a card off of the top of the deck that sat in the center of the table. They were using the deck as a decider for how scary the stories they told had to be. He looked at the card and saw it was a level seven monster called "Ryu-Ran."

"Umm do I need to change my pants for this story?" Syrus asked. Jaden looked at Jason, a question in his eyes. Jason looked at him for a second then nodded.

"Okay, it's not particularly scary per say but I'm going to tell you how Jason got injured." Jaden said setting the card into the discard pile.

Jaden walked out of the building, happy as a clam. He had won! His parents, Jaelyn and Jacob Yuki, walked beside him and Jason brought up the rear. In Jaden's hands was the trophy the announcer had given him for winning the tournament. Basically it was a golden Duel Monsters card balanced on it's corner on a small golden pedestal. Jaelyn had pocketed the $5000 check that was the first place prize.

"I totally kicked his butt." Jaden exclaimed as they walked to the parking lot and the family car.

"That you did, Jaden." Jacob said smiling.

"We couldn't be happier for you." Jaelyn said

Just then Jaden's last opponent, Rick Stevens, walked out of the building. He wore a brown over coat with a green tee shirt underneath it. He had jeans on and wore brown, fancy, shoes. He looked almost exactly as he had when Jaden dueled him except now instead of wearing his duel disk on his arm, Rick held a revolver and had it pointed at Jaden.

"You did good kid." He said in a way that suggested that he didn't mean it. "But there's no way you could have beaten me without cheating. So give me what's mine."

"Jaden, give him the trophy." Jacob said, slowly raising his hands.

Jaden wanted to keep the trophy but he knew that it wasn't worth it. He slowly made his way over to Rick and set the trophy at his feet. As Jaden backed away, somebody tackled Rick to the ground. What happened next is something Jaden would never forget. The gun went off, the bullet tearing through Jason's face, who had moved to where he was standing next to Jacob. The scene moved in slow motion for Jaden as he watched Jason fall to the ground with pieces of skin and chunks of eye flying off and out of his face.

Jaden stopped there, as he didn't want to reveal his supreme king awakening and consequent massacre to the other boys. He was looking in his hands as he finished the story. Syrus and Chumley looked morosely at Jaden while Jason just stared at the table with his hands folded together.

"I'm sorry that that happened to you, Jason." A voice said form the door. The twins looked up and the other boys turned around in their seats to see professor Banner standing in the doorway of the small room. "Please, know that if you ever need anything you can come to me."

"Not to be rude professor, but why are you here?" Chumley asked as the professor walked into the room.

"Oh! That's right." Banner said, seeming to just remember. "I came to tell you that it's nearly curfew and you should get to bed. But what are you doing?"

"Since it's close to Halloween we're telling scary stories." Syrus said gesturing to the deck. "You want to try? You draw a card and the higher the level of the card the scarier the story has to be."

"Hmm, seams easy enough." Banner said, nodding. He drew the top card from the deck. It was Jaden's "Yubel the Ultimate Nightmare." It was a level twelve, the highest there was.

"Oh this should be good." Jaden said eagerly as he saw the grin that spread across the professor's face. Syrus saw the card, the grin, and then he paled. He quickly shot from his seat heading straight for the door.

"You know, I'm really tired. I think I'll take your advice, Professor, and head to bed." Syrus said quickly as he started to open the dorm room door. Jason nodded, wide eyed, and started to get up to join him. He didn't need any more nightmares, thank you very much.

"Did you know that island once had a forth dorm?" Banner asked in a normal tone, the smile still evident on his face.

"There was a forth dorm?" Syrus asked despite his earlier statement about going to bed and him being halfway out of the door. Jason saw his chance and slowly made his over to the door to sneak out while he could.

"Oh yes." The professor answered. "It was an extension of the blue dorm., designed for top tier duelists who were not as snobbish as the Obelisks. Actually Jaden you would have been eligible for the dorm if you passed some of your tests. Anyway it was called the Millennium Dorm."

"Whoa, really?" Jaden asked as Jason stealthily snuck out of the room. Banner nodded in response to Jaden's question.

"Nobody talks about it anymore." Banner said sadly.

"Well why not?" Chumley asked

"Because several of the students went missing." Banner said as if he was talking about the weather.

"Missing?!" Syrus exclaimed from his spot in the door way, now looking thoroughly scared.

"Soon after the students went missing, rumors began popping up saying that the disappearances were connected to the Shadow Games." Banner continued as if Syurs hadn't spoken.

"Nice story Professor. You can stop now, please." Chumley said as a dark circle spread across the front of his pants. "Oh this is so not licious."

"You see children, the Shadow Games are an ancient form of dueling that was used with the Millennium Items. We learned this a few days ago in my class. Do you remember?" Banner explained after looking at Chumley. Syrus walked back into the room, closing the door behind him.

"That's right. The concept of Duel Monsters came from Ancient Egypt." He said

"That's correct, Syrus." Banner praised "But for the Egyptians the duels were real. And if you lost, your soul would be sent to the Shadow Realm, a mystical place filled with nothing but darkness and evil. According to legend the shadow games were the second most lethal practice the Egyptians pursued, the first being their wars."

"Okay got all of that but what does this have to do with the dorm?" Jaden asked as if he were still in class for the day.

"Before this island housed the academy the building that became the Millennium Dorm was used to conduct research on the Millennium Items and the Shadow Games. But the research team went missing so they shut down the program. When Seto Kaiba bought the island he made it into a dorm house but when the students went missing, they shut down the building entirely." Banner explained as Pharaoh came up beside him and rubbed his head on his master's leg. Jaden appeared to think about that.

"Really?" Jaden asked, raising an eyebrow "I mean Millennium Items, Shadow Games that's all bogus right?" Banner smiled.

"Well you know what they say, in every myth is a grain of truth." He said as his cat started to curl up on Chumley's bed. "No pharaoh, don't go to sleep there." He scooped up the cat, who meowed and struggled. "Well children I think that that's my cue to go to bed. You should too, its far past curfew."

"Goodnight Professor." The boys said as Banner left the room, the still struggling Pharaoh in his arms.

"Well, going off of what he said, that must be the old run down building that I accidentally found the other day." Syrus said, thinking out loud.

"Cool," Jaden said as he got up and made his way to the door "then you can lead the way for us tomorrow, right?"

"Sure, wait what?" Syrus asked "What do you mean tomorrow night?"

"And what do you mean us?" Chumley asked cowering in his bed.

Raven sat in his bed getting, another lesson in the art of stealth from Phantom. Eventually he raised his hand as if he was in Professor Banner's class.

"Phantom, as riveting as this is, I have a question." He said when Phantom raised an eyebrow at him mid lecture. "Is there anywhere I can see for myself what Haou did? You've never said anything else on him after the first night when you showed me the memory."

"Hmm," Phantom said, raising a hand to his chin. "I have noticed a fair amount of dark magic coming from an old dorm building in the forest. There might some documents there that explain the tyranny of Haou."

"Cool, let's go tomorrow then." Raven decided nodding to himself.

Jaden walked down the hall with Jason's new pills in his hand. He was more than ready to explore the abandoned dorm and start doing some good with his Supreme King powers instead of the destruction his past self had caused. He knew that his past had been bloody and brutal, and not just from what Yubel had told him. Ever since his Awakening he had been having dreams of his past. Sometimes the dreams were just the screams of his foes, others actual images of his conquests. They were not happy dreams.

As he walked around a corner he saw Alexis standing by the window, looking at the sea. She didn't appear to be paying much attention, as her body was almost perfectly still and her eyes were slightly glazed. Curious as to what had originally captured her attention, Jaden walked over the window and looked out as well.

It was the beach near the Ra Yellow dorm. The waves were crashing against the rocks and then retreating. Miniature rainbows appeared for a second or two as the drops of water flew back towards the sea. It was a pretty cool view, Jaden had to admit. Alexis must have noticed his arrival because she blinked a few times and nodded towards the view.

"Amazing huh?" she asked. "Most people would pass this view and ignore it, just another beach on an island. Me, I see a view like this and want to watch it for a few minutes."

"I hear ya." Jaden agreed. "Friends, family, things like that are the most important things in life."

"And dueling?" Alexis added, smiling

"Yes, well, that's a given." Jaden said now grinning broadly. Alexis spotted the pill bottle in Jaden's hand.

"What are those for?" she asked. Jaden's demeanor immediately took a nose dive.

"Yesterday Jason started having headaches." Jaden explained sadly. "Today we went to the nurse and she gave us these. He carries a bottle around for himself and these are for our room. He now has permission to take one of these whenever he gets another headache."

Jaden hated watching his brother take pills every two or three hours. But he knew that if it kept him alive it was a blessing. Alexis looked sadly at the pills.

"I'm sorry." She said. "But he's lucky to have a brother that cares for him so much." She turned back to watching the waves. Jaden looking at her and thought she looked a little sad for some reason.

"What's up Lex? Something wrong?" he asked. Her mouth twitched upward at her new nickname.

"It's just that… you remind me of a family member that I lost." She sighed. "And seeing how you treat and care for Jason, it just brought up some old memories." Jaden nodded almost to himself.

"I lost my parents they day that Jason got hurt." He admitted after a second or two of nodding. "I thought I would be alone for the rest of my life, and then Jason recovered." Alexis looked at him again.

"Bet you were glad, huh?" she asked smiling a little.

"A little bit more than glad, actually." Jaden replied chuckling. He had very nearly killed Jason when he had snapped. It was only because of Yubel shielding Jason that he was alive enough to need the pills in Jaden's hand. Jaden owed Yubel for that and he doubted that he would ever be able to properly repay the demoness.

"Guess we have that in common." Alexis said causing Jaden to look at her in confusion. "Family is very important to us."

"I guess we do." Jaden said showing signs of understanding. Alexis turned back to the window.

"Feel free to watch the waves all you want." She said crossing her arms and watching the waves once more.

Melody was sitting by the lake watching Arno and Ezio spar on the shore. It was nearly curfew and she was spending her time watching her friends fight. They had vastly different styles of combat. Where Arno used thrusts and lunges, Ezio used more of a hack and slash method. Of course this could be because Ezio used a dagger, wielding it backhanded mind you, while Arno used a Rapier.

Ezio was different than the version that was used in the duel against Raven, though Melody didn't know about that. He looked to be the same age as when Shade had played him but he wore much different clothing this time. His black vest and white shirt had been replaced with a hooded white robe that had red stripes that went vertically down the shirt spaced about a foot or two apart. Over his left shoulder, he wore a leather pauldron and a brown cape that would have covered up his arm if he hadn't been fighting.

On his forearm he wore a layered metal bracer that had a hidden blade mechanism attached to the bottom of it. He had another one on but that was hidden under his sleeve on the other arm. He wore a brown glove on his left arm and on his should was a very decorative cuff like thing, also red and white. He wore a red and brown belt that had the silver symbol that all of her Assassin monsters had somewhere on their person. On the belt sat various weapons and pouches. He wore brown pants that looked very similar to the pants his Noble form wore. His also wore knee high dark leather boots.

As Melody was watching Ezio get under Arno's guard and win their duel, she noticed a bit of white out of the corner of her eye. Looking towards it, she saw Raven walking into the forest. She had wondered about him ever since she had met him. She didn't believe his story about her sleep walking to the docks a few months ago for second. One because she had never sleep walked in her life and two because just the way he had said it seemed suspicious, as if he was hiding something.

"I saw something let's go check it out." She said to Ezio and Arno. Ezio slid his dagger onto his belt and Arno sheathed his sword.

"Molto bene, let's go." Ezio said gesturing to the trees where her third spirit and friend, Connor, stood, leaning against a tree.

He was a Native American man in hooded white robes that had blue stripes going down the edges of the front with a bow and several arrows strapped across his back. He wore a red, cross strap with a leather belt over it. On it sat the same silver symbol that Ezio's belt had along with two holsters with flintlock pistols resting in them, as well as a tomahawk on one side and a sword on the other. Like Ezio, his belt also contained a couple of pouches for his various tools.

On his left arm he wore a dark leather bracer that had a hidden blade mechanism attached to it, which could pivot into a small knife. He had another on his right arm but that one was white and looked to be a part of his outer jacket. Under his robes he wore a dirty white button up shirt and around his neck he wore three claw looking things attached together by a piece of thin rope. To finish off the outfit he wore blue, army like, pants, leather moccasins, and boots.

"Let us go" He said seriously as he stood up fully and walked over to them.

Melody nodded to them and started to follow the first year obelisk into the woods. He wasn't going to the blue dorm of that Melody was certain. He was walking in the wrong direction and he would know where his dorm was by now. With her assassin friends behind her she followed Raven as he trekked through the forest.

Raven crouched behind the bush, watching the area around the dorm. He didn't think any one was coming, as no one had come in thirty minutes. Phantom didn't like him being so brash and reckless by waiting only thirty minutes but Raven didn't want to be here all night. He got up and walked into the abandoned dorm.

The entrance hall was exactly as he had expected it to be, dusty. He walked down the hall glancing at the pictures now and then. They were a little creepy, showing images of some golden objects being used to control the masses. Raven hurried down the hall, anxious to find the library that would, hopefully, hold the information he sought.

"Wait." Phantom said hovering before a painting that Raven had overlooked. "Look at this."

The painting wasn't very large. Only about as wide as a computer screen. On it was a depiction of his heroes, all five of them. They were all standing in various fighting positions in front of a red cloaked figure that floated several feet in the air. A dark sphere surrounded the figure and Raven spotted Phantom in the back of the group holding his cane at the ready, cards in his other hand. The man that Raven had seen in Phantom's memories stood beside Phantom with a wand like Evan's raised above his head. Luminous stood side by side with Mercedes, both had their weapons raised. If Raven had to guess it was a depiction of his heroes' final battle between Haou and themselves.

"Okay let's say I'm lost." Raven said gesturing to the painting. "What am I looking at here?"

"You're looking at the heroes' downfall." Phantom sighed. "This is the day that we lost and won. Any way get a move on, I can hear voices. Let's get away before they get here."

Raven nodded and continued down the hall. As he stepped away the floor creaked and he hurried on. He eventually found the library of the dorm, or at least what was left of it. It appeared that the library had been raided, stripped of all of its books.

"Well this was a colossal waste of time." he said as he threw up his arms.

"It would appear so." Phantom said crossing his arms. As Raven was turning to go he heard a muffled thump and some scrapping sounds. He crouched down and went to the door that he had entered.

"Can I use the cards?" Raven whispered to Phantom. "Or are you going to conveniently have a test for me today?"

"Yes, use the cards." Phantom said sounding worried. "Use the Mist Mask."

Raven drew out a golden card and sent a little power into it. Immediately it started to glow. Raven's eye widened and he quickly hid the glowing card, afraid that whatever was out there would see the sudden light. As he hid the card, a cloud of thin mist covered him. He crept down the hall. Now that the card was active he knew he couldn't be seen. He saw a person dragging something down a side corridor and followed it. He followed the person to a large chamber that appeared to be under the dorm room. As he was about to enter the room, with the mysterious person having ducked inside and out of sight, his mist flickered and disappeared.

Raven almost groaned. Why now? He stood up from his crouch and walked into the chamber, hoping that the person had left their luggage here and had left the room. No such luck. As he entered he saw a person in a black over coat standing in the middle of the room.

His outfit looked to be something that Raven would where to school except it was all black. The weird thing about it was that it seemed to draw in the light around it, not that there was much to begin with, but none the less. He wore a set of dark sunglasses and around his neck was a pendant of a ring with an eyed triangle in it. Attached to the edges of the ring were five cone like things. Beside him, wrapped up in rope, was Melody, unconscious.

"A very nice trick I must admit, the way you disappear like that." The man said "but it won't help you in this duel." Raven looked at him and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, I'm confused." He said. "Who are you and what is this about?"

"Pardon my manners." The man said bowing and grinning evilly. "I am Timorus and you are now in a shadow duel, or you will be if don't want me to kill your little shadow here. She followed you here, you know? Skillful work I must admit. But enough of that, duel me or I kill her." He raised his left arm which Raven noticed wore a sinister looking duel disk. In his other hand he now held the pendant in a firm grip.

"There's no way out of this." Phantom said from his student's shoulder. "Not without risking her dying." Raven nodded having reached that conclusion himself.

"Very well, let's duel." He said, as he caught the disk that Timorus threw to him and inserted his deck.

Jaden, Jason and Chumley followed Syrus through the forest. They had already gone the wrong way several times but Jaden just kept joking like nothing was happening.

"Well, now we know where it's not." He joked after another failed route. "Now we just have to find where it is." Jason rolled his eyes, unseen, at his brother's antics.

"Well it could be worse." Chumley said starting to grin. "We could find a puddle of water." He nudged Syrus's boot with his own, referencing the "scary" story the blue haired boy had told before Jaden's story about Jason's accident.

"Oh come on Chumley, it wasn't that bad." Syrus complained lowering his flashlight slightly as he turned to look at the senior Slifer.

"Hey guys, look at that." Jaden said pointing at the spot where Syrus's light now shown. On the ground, lay a rose. It sat in a bed of other picked flowers all in various stages of decomposing. Behind the altar like pile was a waist high wall and behind that was an old looking building.

"The dorm!" Syrus exclaimed.

"It looks like it's full of ghosts." Chumley said, cowering slightly

"Relax Chumley there's no one around here." Jaden reassured. Jason wasn't as sure of that, he had heard a few twigs snapping a few minutes earlier but he didn't bring it up. As Jaden finished talking Alexis and Asami walked out of the shadows created by the flashlights the boys carried. Jason took the opportunity to give his brother a pointed _you were saying_ look.

"Hey you guys, uh, what are you doing here?" Jaden asked slightly nervous, not missing his brother's glare.

"Hmm interesting, we just about to ask you the same thing." Alexis said as she and Asami stepped fully into the light of the flashlights.

"We heard about the dorm and came to check it out." Jaden explained gesturing to the boys who stood behind him.

"Don't' you know that people disappeared here?" Asami asked

"Yeah why else would they shut this place down?" Alexis asked rhetorically

"Plus it's completely forbidden for students to be here." Asami said waving her hand at the dorm.

"Then why are you here?" Syrus piped up.

"Mind you own damn business." Alexis snarled, turning slightly red.

"I'm here to make she doesn't get caught." Asami said snickering at her friend's outburst. Jaden stepped back a few paces at Alexis's tone of voice.

"Look we won't bother you. We just want to look around. Fair?" He asked, extending his hand.

"Fine." Alexis said shaking the offered hand. "But we better not catch you out here again." Jaden nodded and turned to the dorm, his flashlight flicking back and forth.

"Hi Jason." Asami giggled causing the boy to blush and hurry to catch up with his brother.

"Alright guys, ready?" Jaden asked the boys

"I vote for going back. We've seen the place now we should be heading back before something goes wrong." Syrus said fearfully, raising his hand.

"I say we go in. We came this far haven't we?" Jaden said staring adamantly towards the dorm.

Syrus looked at Jason, trying to get him to convince his brother to not go into the dorm. Jason simply shrugged; there was no talking Jaden out of something once he had set his mind to it. With the boys off exploring Asami turned to Alexis

"You've got a keeper in him, Lex." She teased

"Gah, don't you start doing that again and how the hell do you know about that anyway?" Alexis said crossing her arms. "And would you cool it with the flirting with Jason?"

"Says the girl who has no experience dating any one." Asami scoffed as they turned around, right into the shadows that had been creeping up on them.

Jaden walked down the hall with the others trailing behind him. As they came to a corridor branching off in both directions Jaden noticed a painting of a stone tablet hanging on the wall. In the tablet there were seven indentations that were surrounding a stereotypical pharaoh.

"What are those for?" Syrus asked looking at the picture from behind Jaden. Chumley shuffled forward to look at the picture as well.

"Those must be the Millennium Items." He said earning confused glances from the first year Slifers.

"Uh how do you know that?" Jaden asked, looking at the koala like boy.

"We learned about it in Professor Banner's class last year." Chumley explained. The confused looks disappeared. They heard a creaking noise down the right side of the hall and turned to see if they could see what it was.

"Was that a ghost?" Chumley asked suddenly fearful.

"Chill out Chumley." Jaden said turning away from the direction the sound came from to look at the older boy. "This is an old building, probably just a rat running across a rotted board."

"Yeah probably." Chumley said as they moved into the hall way to figure out which way to go.

As they did so the koala boy accidentally kicked the wall, causing a large cloud of dust to fall from the ceiling. It took several minutes of coughing and hand waving to clear the dust but when it did the boys saw a card on the floor of both directions possible for them to go. One was a Cyber Blader, the other was a Comand knight.

"Those belong to Alexis and Asami, right?" Jaden asked Jason. His brother nodded in response to the question. "Okay Jason, Syrus you guys go after Asami." Jaden said pointing the down the corridor that the Command Knight was in. Jason nodded while Syrus cowered slightly. "Me and Chumley will go after Alexis."

The boys split apart each going their separate ways, each hoping to find the girls and be done with that night.

Chumley and Jaden walked down the hall. It was only visible because of the flashlights they held in their hands. They soon came to a torch lit stone cavern that must have been underground because there is no possible way that the chamber could have been above ground and not be seen. It had two levels as far as Jaden could see. The upper level was really just a ring that surrounded the lower level. Speaking of the lower level standing in the center was a man who wore a black coat that covered most of his body.

The only thing that could be seen were the ends of his black trousers, his boots and the top of a fancy looking shirt that was just visible behind his cost's large collar. He wore a silver mask that had fang like extensions coming down from around his cheek bone area as well as a medium sized fedora that hid the top half of his face. He wore an older version of the duel vest that Crowler always wore. The only difference was that he had embellished the disk portion of the machine with large spike like things that looked sharp. And having spent enough time around Infernal Gainer Jaden knew not to get too close to those.

Beside the figure was a coffin with Alexis lying in it, unconscious. She looked perfectly all right just she wasn't moving and Jaden didn't know what that meant.

"Alexis!" he called out.

"Do you wish to save her, prey?" the man said pointing to her. Jaden crouched down, ready to fight the guy if need be.

"You must beat me in a shadow game to set her free." The man said. "And I, Titan, am the master of all Shadow games." I shrugged.

"I'm not afraid of dueling you." Jaden replied, more than ready to beat this guy into next week. "So let her go. Now!"

"The hunted do not get to make demands." Titan said kicking a duel disk over to the Kuriboh haired boy. "And let me assure you, you will be begging for mercy as the shadows claim your soul, as have many before you."

"So you're the one who made those students disappear. Well I won't let you take Alexis too." Jaden said as he slid the duel disk on, now more determined than ever to win the duel.

"I'll let you handle this Jaden." Chumley said fearfully. He pointed to the far end of the upper terrace. "I'll be over there cheering you on."

"A shadow game it is, fool." Titan said. "Not that you had a choice."

"Buddy, I invented the shadows games. I would love to see you try and beat me at my own game." Jaden muttered under his breath. He raised his voice and the two duelists shouted. "Duel!"

Jaden: 4000

Titan: 4000

They both drew their opening hands and Titan started the duel.

"Prepare yourself. I discard Archfiend General to add a Pandemonium field spell from my deck to my hand." He said searching through his deck. "Next I summon Archfiend Heiress in attack mode. And now I activate the Pandemonium that I added to my hand."

A purple girl appeared. She wore a skull like helmet that covered the top half of her face. Her hair came out of the back of the skull and looked like jellyfish tentacles in jaden's opinion. She wore a red feathered cape like thing that covered her shoulders and went partially down her back. She had a creepy bone shaped chest piece and a purple outfit that barely went down past her butt. (Atk:1000/Def:0)

As Titan played Pandemonium the entire cavern disappeared, replaced by a green spider web looking, rock like stuff. It all congregated in the center of the field and spread out in circles.

"Cool, Archfiend cards. You do know you have sacrifice life points every turn right?" Jaden asked almost laughing.

"Normally, yes, I would, but with my field spell out I don't have to. And as a bonus if any archfiend I control gets destroyed I can add another one that's a lower level to my hand." Titan gloated. "I now set a card face down and end my turn." The reverse card appeared

"Ok I guess I'll go then." Jaden grumbled using his power to have the coffin Alexis was in close itself and start sinking.

"Right now you're thinking that you can't win and you're right. Wait, what's happening?" Titan said as he noticed the slowly sinking coffin.

"Uh what are you talking about?" Jaden asked, playing dumb as he stopped the coffin from sinking further.

"Just make your move, worm." Titan said.

"Whoa, worm? Guess I've been demoted." Jaden laughed, drawing his card. He looked at his hand. "I'll start by playing my Evil Hero Lieutenant in attack mode." He said placing the card on the disk.

A man in dark full plate armor appeared. Jaden didn't know the correct term for the armor the monster wore, he was usually slept through those types of classes, but it was made up of mostly large sheets of black metal. He had inky back hair and a malicious sneer that all his Evil Heroes had. In all honesty those sneers had freaked him out when Jaden first got them. The monster carried only a large two-handed sword and as he appeared on the field he lowered himself into a stance that had the sword pointed at Titan's Heiress. (Atk:1200/Def:1600)

"Now Lieutenant attack! Veteran Slash!" Jaden commanded pointing at the shadow duelist's fiend. The monster charged forward, bringing the sword downward in a massive slash that cleaved the fiend in half.

Titan: 3800

Jaden: 4000

"Now I'll throw down a facedown and end my turn." Jaden said sliding the card into place. The reverse image appeared in front of him.

"A minor setback." Titan said as he drew his card. "I play Infernalqueen Archfiend in attack mode. Next I play the cards Monster Reincarnation and Monster Reborn. With these I can discard one card in my hand to add the Heiress you destroyed last turn back into it then with the effect of Monster Reborn I can special summon the Terrorking Archfiend that I discarded."

Two monsters appeared. One was vaguely womanlike and was dressed in a purple cloak and the other was a skeletal warrior with a massive sword. (Atk:900/Def:1500) (Atk:2000/Def:1000)

"Now with the effect of my Infernalqueen all of my Archfiend cards gain one thousand ATK points." Titan said. The two fiends were surrounded by purple mist that emanated from Titan's queen. (Atk:1900) (Atk:3000) "Now Terrorking Attack that Lieutenant! Unholy Swarm!"

The king raised his sword and a swarm of locusts flew out from behind him and ate through Jaden's monster in no time flat. The swarm then flew at Jaden and dealt the remainder of the damage.

 _This might be tougher than I thought._ He thought as he watched the meter on his disk go down.

Titan: 3800

Jaden: 2200

"Infernalqueen attack him! Send his soul to the shadows!" Titan commanded as his second fiend flew at the brown haired boy. She swiped at Jaden with her claws, but he didn't feel them, luckily.

"I activate my trap, Evil Signal!" the boy said pressing a button on his disk. "Because you destroyed one of my monsters I can special summon one Evil Hero monster from my deck. And I choose Evil Hero Defender in defense mode." The familiar fiend appeared, full bodied shield at the ready. (Atk:500/Def:2500) Titan's monster flew straight into the shield and flew back to his side of the field.

"Liscious!" Chumley shouted from the upper level as he watched the duel. His shout must have been heard through whatever Titan had done to Alexis because she awakened and sat up groggily.

"What's going on?" she asked as if she was waking up from a nap. She then saw Jaden. "Jaden?"

Titan: 3200

Jaden: 2200

"No matter. You will fall eventually. But in the meantime since this is a shadow duel you not only lose your life points you lose part of your soul." Titan said raising a golden pyramid hanging from a chain. The eye on the pyramid glowed and Jaden looked down and saw a bit of his arm becoming transparent. He looked over and saw that the same thing was happening to Titan as well, just not as much.

"I take back what I said this is totally not liscious." Chumley said leaning forward.

"Jaden!" Alexis exclaimed as she moved beside Chumley on the upper level.

"I will now set a card face down and end my turn." Titan said. "You have yourself a turn. Make good use of it or else this duel will be over before it has even begun."

"I think I'll do just that." Jaden said as he drew my card. "But first because Defender is in defense mode at the beginning of my Draw Phase I can draw an extra two cards." He drew two more cards leaving him with the maximum hand size. "I start by playing Dark Fusion to send the Elemental Heroes Clayman and Avian from my hand to the graveyard to fusion summon the Evil Hero Dark Tornado."

Holograms of the cards Jaden had just placed into his graveyard flew into a dark swirling vortex. A man in dark green armor flew out of the vortex propelled by a gust of black wind. The top portion of his face was covered by a spiky mask that left his eyes clearly visible. His right arm was covered in a bulky machine like amplifier that was black and dark green. His left arm was covered by a ragged cape that went down to the ground. His eyes were a vibrant blue and he had an evil sneer on his face. (Atk:3000/Def:2500)

"Now I activate his effect. I can add half of your monster's ATK points to my tornado." Jaden explained. Tornado raised his right arm and both duelists watched as a miniature tornado stuck Titan's Terrorking. A vibrant blue aura surrounded Tornado and his stats went up. (Atk:4500)

"Now that I have that done I will attack your Infernalqueen with my Tornado. Go Dark Storm!" Jaden commanded, pointing at the cloaked fiend.

Tornado raised both of his hands and a black tornado sprung up around Titan's monster. Jaden thought that he had almost won the duel until Titan pressed a button on the vest portion of his disk.

"I activate my trap Half Unbreak!" he said. "With this I can protect my monster from being destroyed and protect my life points from half of the damage I would have taken."

"Nice card." Jaden complemented as the storm abruptly ended, leaving Titan's fiend still standing. "I'll end with a couple of facedowns." He slid three cards into slots on his disk.

Titan: 1900

Jaden: 2200

"And it is my turn." Titan said as he drew his card. "I will sacrifice my two monsters to summon my Imprisoned Queen Archfiend."

His two monsters shattered and Jaden watched as the shards formed together to form a monster that looked like it belonged in a horror game. It was very skeletal with purple muscle like things under the skeleton. Around it's neck was a set of bone and muscles that went upward like a collar and on it's head was another set of bones and muscle in the shape of a crown. Attached to it's wrists and ankles were chain like things made of bone. It had black wings on it's back and wore a green loincloth like thing. (Atk:2900/Def:1700)

"Now I active the effect of my monsters," Titan said "if they would be destroyed by any means I spin the wheel of fortune. If it lands on a two or a five my Terror king survives, the same goes for my queen. And since they both died I can roll twice."

Six spheres rose into the air, each labeled with a number from one to six. Jaden noticed that the spheres labeled two and five were ablaze. The spheres started to spin.

"Come on Jaden, the odds are in your favor." Alexis said as Chumley just stared at the spinning balls.

The balls started to slow down. As it slowed enough for me to see what the numbers were, it passed the five and kept going. It slowed down more and stopped; on the two.

"It seems that the odds aren't in your favor after all." Jaden's opponent said as his Terrorking reappeared. (Atk:2000/Def:1000) "Let's play again." Once again the spheres rose into the air and started to spin. The spheres stopped spinning on a three.

"Close but no cigar." Jaden said using a phrase he had once heard a foreigner use.

"No matter. Now my Queen Archfiend, attack his Defender with Imprisoned Shadow!" Titan pointed at the kneeling soldier and smirked.

The fiend raised her hands and a sphere of dark energy appeared in between them. She then threw the ball at Jaden's monster, who promptly exploded.

"Now I end my turn with three cards facedown." Titan said, sliding the cards into place on his disk.

"My turn" Jaden said drawing his card. "I play the spell card Dark Calling. This card allows me to take the Elemental Hero Avian from my graveyard and the Elemental Hero Burstinatrix from my hand and banish them. Once I do, I can special summon the Evil Hero Inferno Wing."

He placed the cards into his deck holster and watched as holograms of the monsters flew into the dark vortex that appeared during all of the dark fusions. Jaden's favorite monster flew out and landed beside of Dark Tornado. (Atk:2100/Def:1200)

"My king," Her spirit said bowing to him "it is great that you summoned me yet again. Now let us destroy this pretender." Jaden nodded slightly in response and turned his attention back to the duel.

"Liscious!" Chumley cheered

"That's Jaden's favorite monster." Alexis said. "There's no way he can lose now."

"Now my Inferno Wing attack his Terrorking. Go Inferno Blast!" Jaden commanded pointing at Titan's monster.

Inferno Wing raised her cactus like hands and generated a fireball the size of a watermelon in between them. She then threw it at the fiend and crossed her arms to see her work in action.

"I activate Terrorking's effect." Titan said as, once again, the balls appeared. They started to spin turning themselves into what looked like a ring of fire. The balls stopped spinning and landed on a four.

"Yeah! Alright!" Jaden cheered as Alexis and Chumley did the same.

The Terror king was engulfed in the fireball and exploded. The edges of the fire ball hit Titan which reduced his life points.

"Now I can activate Inferno wing's effect." Jaden said "I can deal damage to you equal to your monsters attack points." Inferno wing flew over to Titan and held out her hand. Titan pressed a button on his vest.

"I activate my trap Archfiend Reduction." He said as one of his facedowns flipped up "I can remove from play one archfiend card from my graveyard, like my Archfiend Heiress, and reduce any effect damage I would take this turn to zero."

Titan: 1800

Jaden: 2200

"I can still attack with Dark Tornado." Jaden said, ready to end this. He pointed at Titan's other monster. "Dark Tornado, attack his Imprisoned Queen with Dark Storm." Once again Dark Tornado raised his arms and black gusts of wind began to swirl around Titan's monster.

"I activate Magic Cylinder. With this trap I can negate your attack and deal damage to you equal to your monster's ATK points." Titan said smirking. "This duel is over, enjoy the Shadow Realm."

"Not so fast!" Jaden shouted pressing a button on his disk. "I activate my other trap. Sacrificial Counter. With this card I can pay a measly five hundred life points to negate all other damage to me for the remainder of the turn."

One of his facedown cards flipped up showing a trap card with an image of a bloody hand, dripping blood over a shield. Not Jaden's favorite card by any means but it was effective in a pinch.

"I'll end my turn." Jaden said.

Titan: 1800

Jaden: 1700

"I shall begin my turn then." Titan said, drawing his card. "I start by playing Monster Reborn. As I'm sure you know this card allows me to special summon any monster from anyone's graveyard. I think I'll take your Elemental Hero Clayman in defense mode."

The earthen warrior rose from the green webbed ground, kneeling and with his arms crossed in front of him. (Atk:800/Def:2000)

"Next I'll play Vilepawn Archfiend, also in defense mode." Titan said

A fiend that had a similar appearance of a summoned skull appeared. It was mostly tan with a reddish ribcage. It's right arm was imbedded with a short two sided sword. And its left arm actually had a hand. But, like Inferno Wing, its fingers were not regular, they were short curved blades. Further up its arm was a shield like thing that went out a few inches from its arm. (Atl:1200/Def:200)

"Now I think I'll end my turn." Titan said. "But before you begin you turn, would you like to see your brother and friend one last time before you are consumed by the shadow?"

He waved his arm toward that wall opposite of Chumley and Alexis. It was really foggy over there. Suddenly two images appeared on the wall and hovered there. One was of Jason dueling a pale guy dressed in a purple suit with large red cuts on the sides of his mouth. Jaden noticed that in his duel disk hand the guy held a knife that glinted in the light of what Jaden assumed was torches. He looked and saw Asami tied to a totem pole beside the creepy purple guy.

The other image was of Raven cowering with his cards barely in his hand. He seemed to be trying to escape from something not picked up by the camera. His opponent was dressed in a black trench coat much like Titan's and wore dark sunglasses. Beside him Jaden saw a Ra Yellow girl wrapped up in rope who looked to be struggling to get free, with a look of worry on her face.

Both of the mystery duelists were grinning while Jason seemed to be in pain and Raven was missing his smirk that he usually wore during a duel and seemed to be in terror of something unseen.

"They are being handled by my apprentices Anarchy and Timorus." Titan said. "And it will not be long before they are both consumed by the shadows. Especially little Jason Yuki."

That struck a nerve for Jaden. Nobody threatened his brother, not Chazz, and certainly not this fraud. It was time to end this.

"Jaden no!" Yubel warned as she flew out of the deck. Her warning fell on deaf ears as Jaden simply wanted to kill the guy who so threatened his little brother.

"My turn!" He snarled, drawing the card. "First I play another Dark Fusion. Now I send to the grave my Elemental Hero Sparkman and My Evil Hero Inferno Wing. With these two monsters I can summon my Evil Hero Electric Lavawing"

The two monsters flew into the swirling vortex and out flew a flame engulfed fiend with giant wings that spread across the field. Above his head a massive storm cloud hung in the air, showering the field in lightning. She wore full plate armor and carried a massive two-handed sword that was also covered with fire. (Atk:2800/Def:2300)

Jaden felt a shift in his consciousness and suddenly he was no longer in the driver's seat of his own body. He watched as his eyes turned from a light brown to a vibrant gold. Jaden had used too powerful a card and now Haou had taken over, that could be good, kind of.

"Jaden?" Alexis asked looking down at Haou. "Are you okay?"

"Not liscious." Chumley said. "He's not going to react well to Titan threatening Jason, he never does."

"You are no Shadow Duelist." Haou said. "You are but a conjurer of cheap tricks. Let me show you how a shadow duel is really played." He grabbed the Avian card from his deck box and threw it like a throwing star. It pierced through and shattered Titan's "Millennium Item" and instantly both of their bodies returned to normal.

"Hey you got your bodies back." Alexis said causing Haou to laugh.

"This fraud couldn't remove my middle finger much less my body." Haou said. "Now let's see how the Shadows like being imitated." He muttered that last part.

A bolt of black lightning arced down in the center of the ring. Instantly the entire lower level was surrounded in a black sphere. Jaden thought he heard Alexis yell his name but he couldn't tell.

"Now this is a shadow duel." Haou said approvingly.

"What have you done?" Titan asked looking around frantically. "Where am I?"

"You are in the shadow realm and unlike you I can ensure that you stay here for all of eternity." Haou said maliciously. "The only way to get out of here alive is to beat me in this duel. But it is my turn. So I will continue."

Haou looked over his hand and laughed.

"I will start by activating Lavawing's effect." Haou said "For every Elemental and Evil Hero in my Graveyard my monster gains an additional five hundred ATK points. And there are four in my graveyard so Lavawing gets 2000 ATK points."

Lavawing slammed her sword into the ground and fiery images of Lieutenant, Defender, Inferno Wing, and Sparkman appeared. The image of Inferno Wing looked at Haou and recoiled slightly.

"It is a great… honor to see you again, my liege." Her image said uneasily.

"Shut up." Haou snapped. "You are not here to speak, you are here to power up my monster." Inferno Wing nodded and then she and the other heroes flew into Lavawing's sword. Lavawing's flames grew larger as her stats increased. Jaden could feel the heat flowing against his and Haou's body and, apparently, so could Titan as he stepped back a little, shielding his face with his arm. (Atk:4800)

"Feel the true power of the shadow realm" Haou laughed. "You are no more. Lavawing attack his Vilepawn with Electric Lava Blast" Titan pressed a button on his disk.

"I activate my trap. Sakurestu Armor. With this I negate your attack and destroy your monster." Titan said almost triumphantly. Haou laughed mockingly.

"My monster cannot be destroyed by card effect on the turn that it was summoned." Haou laughed. "Ah, what fun it is to be destroying lives again."

Just then Jaden noticed that small black blobs were crawling out of the shadows towards the tow duelists. Titan noticed it too and was staring at them fearfully. When one got close he tried to kick it away but it grabbed onto his leg and started to claw it way up.

"Yubel!" Haou ordered. "Come out here and keep these things off of me while I destroy this petty mortal." Yubel huffed and floated over beside the tyrannical king. She spread her wings out and raised them above her head, hissing at any blob that came too close to Haou for her liking.

"I think I'll attack with Tornado to end this duel and send you to the depths of the shadow realm. Go, Dark Storm!" Haou commanded pointing at Titan's Imprisoned Queen.

The evil hero raised his arms and launched his most vicious storm yet at the fiend. This time Titan could do nothing but watch as his monster was shredded in the dark gales that spawned at the command of Dark Tornado. Once the storm was done with his monster it moved on to Titan himself. Jaden kind of felt bad for him, but not much.

Titan: 200

Jaden: 1700

Haou cackled and Yubel snorted. Jaden could tell he was going to be in so much trouble when this was over.

"I'll end my turn, you pathetic wretch." Haou said

"What are you?" Titan asked drawing his card. Haou laughed some more.

"I am the Supreme King Master of the shadow realm and soon to be the one who will end your life." Haou answered, happily. Titan shivered, mainly because a blob was crawling up his spine.

"I play Desrook Archfiend." Titan said, sounding scared as the blobs that had now almost completely covered his body. "Then I play double summon to sacrifice it and your Clayman to summon Archfiend Empress in attack mode. I then play three spell cards. Dian Keto the Cure Master, Foolish Burial, and Card of Sanctity."

The three green-bordered cards appeared. Yubel hissed at more blobs as they came too close, sending them scurrying over to Titan. Haou just looked bored and was considering the cards in his hand.

A monster appeared that looked vaguely like a demonic tower. It promptly shattered, along with Clayman, and Jaden watched through Haou's eyes as the pieces formed into a woman like figure holding a bladed staff and a glowing green orb in her other hand. She wore cloths similar to those of Archfiend Heiress but with a longer cape and no fabric in her attire. (Atk:2900/Def:2100)

"With these three cards I gain one thousand life points, send my Skull Archfiend of lightning to the grave yard and then we both draw till we have six cards in our hands." Titan continued with his turn. Both Haou and Titan drew until they each had six cards and I saw that a slime was hissing in Titan's ear, sitting on his shoulder, a funny sight if Jaden hadn't started to feel sorry for the guy. A shadow game could do a lot worse than scare you shitless.

As Titan activated his first spell card, a man appeared with a white orb in his hands. The orb flew over to Titan and burst apart in a cloud of sparkling light.

Titan: 1200

Haou/Jaden: 1700

"Now I activate Call of the Haunted to special summon the monster that I just sent to my graveyard. Rise Skull Archfiend of Lightning, in attack mode." Titan said trying to lean his head away from the blob on his shoulder.

What looked like a Summoned Skull covered in lightning rose from the ground. It then roared then crossed it's arms and stood there. (Atk:2500/Def:1200)

"I'll end my turn there." Titan said, sliding a card into his disk. Haou yawned.

"Pardon me, but I find myself irrevocably… BORED!" he shouted the last part then started to laugh. He drew his card. "I start by playing a final Dark Fusion. I'll tribute my Dark Tornado and send my Evil Hero Malicious Edge to the graveyard to summon Evil Hero Malicious Fiend."

Another swirling vortex appeared and Tornado flew into it. A holographic image of the monster Jaden had used against Chazz in their duel a month ago flew into it as well. Out flew a monster that looked like a more powerful version of Edge. It had rounded claws and wings that stretched almost as wide as Lavawing's did. (Atk:3500/Def:2500)

"And since two more Heroes were sent to the graveyard, Lavawing gains an additional one thousand ATK points" Haou said, grinning evilly. The flames that surrounded Lavawing grew brighter and rose higher. (Atk:5800)

"Bah, that's just like him." Yubel hissed flapping her wings at a few blobs that had strayed too far from the pack that now surrounded Titan. "Sacrificing the weak to aid the strong."

"Now my Lavawing, attack his Archfiend of Lightning. End this duel!" Haou commanded, pointing at the weakest monster on Titan's field and laughing.

Lavawing raised her hands and Jaden watched, slightly horrified, as electrified lava shot out of the ground under Titan's monster, completely destroying it. The lava then fell and hit Titan full in the face. Jaden shivered in his corner of the combined mind, if the lava didn't kill Titan, the electricity surely did. The blobs scattered rather quickly and started to congregate around the spot that Titan last stood before sinking into the ground. Haou laughed as the lava hit Titan.

"I am unstoppable." He gloated. Yubel jumped onto his back and grabbed his head. The dark king jerked violently, trying to buck her off but she held firm. "Get off, you miserable creature."

"Get back into your cage." She said through her teeth, as they were clenched tight in concentration. Suddenly Jaden had control of his body again and Yubel let go of his head and flew over to the side.

"You idiot." She hissed. "You could have lost control, permanently." She crossed her arms and glared at Jaden, waiting for an explanation.

"I got mad. He threatened Jason and I wanted revenge." He explained with his head down, ashamed. Her glare softened slightly and she uncrossed her arms.

"Let's get out of here. We can discuss what happened today later." She said before waving her hand at the edge of the dome like wall of shadows. As the dome fell Jaden saw Alexis and Chumley standing right where they left them. Alexis rushed down to Jaden and then looked confusedly at where Titan had been.

"What was that shadowy dome and what happened to the creepy guy?" she asked.

"I don't know what the dome was and he disappeared after I beat him." Jaden lied wearily "Come on let's go find Jason and Raven." Alexis looked at him, concerned but eventually shrugged it off. There would be plenty of time for answers.


	6. Chapter 6: the Fire of Anarchy

Disclaimer: I own next to nothing. Yu-Gi-Oh! GX belongs to some company in japan. Jason, Asami, and their respective deck ideas belong to SuperNeos2. The classes Raven cards are based off of belong to Nexon Korea. The only thing I own is Raven and his card ideas.

Chapter Six

Shadows of the Mind Part 2: The Fire of Anarchy

Jason walked down the hall that Asami's card had been laying in. Syrus was behind him, putting on a brave face, even though Jason knew that he was probably scared out of his mind. Jason noticed that the pictures and paintings on the walls were starting to get more and more ancient. As they passed it one of these paintings caught his eye. It was a picture of a man with one of the pyramids in the background. He was bald and had a scar running down the right side of his face. Surprisingly he wore clothes that one could find in any modern clothing store. Jason thought the man looked like he had just received bad news as he was being painted. Jason felt a connection to him somehow, but he knew that that was insane. Jason had never seen this guy before in his life.

"Who's that do you think?" Syrus asked as he looked around Jason at the painting. Jason looked at him and shrugged. The message was clear. How am I supposed to know?

"Can we keep going?" Syrus asked, looking around quickly. "Not that that isn't interesting but the sooner we find Asami the sooner we can get out of here. You know?" Jason nodded and turned down the hallway.

As they kept walking Jason noticed something weird. It looked somebody had been spray painting on the walls recently. He looked closer and saw that it was the same symbol repeated over and over again. A capital A surrounded by a circle of some sort. All along the walls the symbol was still dripping. It covered some of the paintings and grew bigger the further down the two boys went.

"Um, do you think that whoever took Asami and Alexis did this?" Syrus asked fearfully. Jason didn't know how to respond to that, so, once again, he shrugged.

Jason soon saw a light flickering down the corridor. When he went to it Jason saw a large arena like thing. It was a flat circle like place made entirely of stone. On the wall sat torches that generated a flickering light that made the place seem very macabre, in the center of the arena stood a man and a totem pole.

The man was about as weird as you could get. He was deathly pale with short diagonal cuts coming out of the sides of his mouth. He had greasy black hair along with beady brown eyes that were flicking this way and that, looking for something that was probably unseen to everyone but him. He wore a ragged purple suit that looked like it had once been rather nice and expensive. In his hand was a small knife that he kept flipping and catching, without looking at it.

On the totem pole was Asami. She was tied to the pole a couple feet off of the ground and looked to be unconscious. Otherwise she looked fine. Syrus came into the room and yelped at the sight of the man.

"I'll let you handle this one, Jace," He said scooting as far away from the man as possible. At the sound of Syrus's voice the beady eyes flicked over to us and the man prodded Asami with his knife, waking her but not actually cutting her.

"Good evening lady and gentlemen," He said smiling at us. "I am tonight's… entertainment. And I only have, one question for you. Where is Jason Yuki?" he spoke kind of slowly, enunciating clearly. Syrus looked at Jason then back at the man.

"What do you want with him?" Asami asked from her spot on the pole. The man turned to her and laughed.

"I want to duel him, of course," He said before turning back to the boys. "Now, who is it?" Jason stepped forward with his pad in hand.

"Who are you? And how do I get Asami down?" Jason wrote then showed it to the man.

"I am Anarchy," The man said smiling. He raised his hands in the air like a cross. "And to get your little friend down all you have to do is, beat me in a shadow duel."

"You're crazy," Syrus stated fearfully. "The shadow games don't exist." Anarchy's smile vanished.

"I'm not crazy," He said seriously. "No I am not. I'm just… ahead of the curve." Jason took his pad and wrote on it once more. God, he hated to do this.

"So what do you want? Surely you didn't do this just for fun," It said

"If you're good at something never do it for free," Anarchy replied. "Like how you're good at dueling… and annoying the guy who hired me. So, let's duel." He was once again enunciating and breathing deeply. He threw a disk to the bandaged boy and both duelists slid their disks onto their arms, though Jason noticed that Anarchy kept a hold of his knife.

"I'll go over there," Syrus said pointing to a spot by a torch. "You got this, right? Good." He then ran over to his indicated spot and watched fearfully. Jason nodded at him then a looked to Asami and nodded to her as well.

"Come on, little cyclops, we don't have all day," Anarchy said licking his lips a little. "I'll warn you now, if you back out I'll cut her or maybe… I should start now… just to …give you a little taste."

Jason shook his head and walked over to where he was across from Anarchy. Sly was hovering next to Jason with his cane held firmly against his back, probably across his shoulder blades.

"Go get 'em Jason" Sly said before disappearing into the deck as Jason drew his hand. The pad, whose usage Jason hated so much, was in his hand once more.

"So a shadow game it is," Anarchy said, also drawing his hand.

Jason: 4000

Anarchy: 4000

"I'll go first," Jason "said." "And I start by summoning Rioichi Cooper onto the field in attack mode."

Jason revealed a card from his hand that was mostly white with a brown raccoon on it. The raccoon wore a white tunic and had red and silver bracers. Over the tunic he wore a blue cloak that had a hood attached to it that covered most of his face in shadows. The hood had two little slots on where his raccoon ears stuck out and, if you looked closely, you could see a small mask that went over his eyes under the hood.

He wore blue cloth pants and had knee high blue boots like Sly's on. In his hand he held a bamboo staff that had the Cooper question mark like design at the end. A long piece of cloth was wrapped around the section that Rioichi held and another, smaller, piece was wrapped around the top of the staff. As soon as he appeared on the field he sat down in a meditative pose. (Atk:1700/Def:1200)

"Next I play two cards facedown" Jason wrote on his pad and showed it to Anarchy. "Then I end my turn." Jason slid the cards into the disk and watched as the images appeared.

"My move then," Anarchy said, drawing his card. "I'll play, Meteor of Destruction. And I can deal one thousand damage to you, all because you have more than three thousand life points already." A fireball appeared and flew directly at Jason's face, reducing his life points. Anarchy laughed a wheezing laugh and then continued. "Now I'll play two cards facedown as well as play a monster face down." Anarchy licked his lips as two reversed cards appeared at his feet.

Jason: 3000

Anarchy: 4000

"Now… since this _is…_ a shadow duel. You will lose more than your life points. You, my friend, will lose your soul," Anarchy said as he raised a golden rod up into the air and suddenly parts of Jason's chest started to disappear. Jason looked down and his eyes widened in surprise and fear. Anarchy slid the rod into the inside of his tattered suit and smiled broadly. He then laughed again and then gestured for Jason to make his turn. He shakily drew his card then took out the pad.

"I summon Bentley the Turtle," Jason "said" as he placed the card on his disk.

A large green turtle appeared on the field. He wore a tannish T-shirt that he had strapped to the underside of his shell. He wore a pair of yellow shorts and wore a safari explorer's hat that was strapped under his chin. He had a pair of opaque glasses that obscured his eyes and had a pair of gardener's gloves on. (Atk:1200/Def:1000) The pad was out once again.

"Now I activate Time Machine. With this card, I can special summon any Cooper monster from my hand. I choose to summon Sir Gallath Cooper," Jason "said".

One of Jason's facedowns flipped up to reveal a tricked out purple and red van that was flying through a bright blue tube of light. Galleth's card was simply an image of the medieval raccoon pointing his lance at the front of the card with a castle behind him. He appeared standing with his great-sword drawn and at the ready. (Atk:1300/Def:1100)

"Hail, Sir Jason," His spirit said. "I see thou art vying for the attention of the young pink one again."

 _Shut up, Gallath_ Jason thought

"You want to know what I do to little pests, like those monsters of yours?" Anarchy asked "I get rid of them instantly. For this one I'll activate Torrential Tribute. I'll assume you know what it does."

"Thou art a craven! Face me proper," Gallath exclaimed just before the trap activated.

A tidal wave appeared and wiped out every monster on the field, except for Rioichi who jumped out of the way and landed on his feet.

"Fool," Rioichi's spirit said "you cannot best one who has been trained by the ancients with so simple a tactic, try harder."

Once the water subsided Jason saw holographic images of Gallath, Bently and a Marshmallon, which must have been Anarchy's facedown monster, disappear into the ground. Anarchy looked at the still alive Rioichi and frowned. Jason raised the pad to show it to Anarchy.

"Rioichi over here can't be affected by trap cards," He "said." Anarchy raised his arms slightly and let them fall back to his sides.

"Well," He said. "Is it my turn?" Jason looked at his hand then pointed at Anarchy, signaling for the samurai Cooper to attack. Rioichi nodded and then rushed at Anarchy with his cane at the ready. As he got close to the Shadow Duelist he slammed his fist into Anarchy and reduced his life points.

Jason: 3000

Anarchy: 2300

"Yeah! Way to play Jace!" Syrus cheered from the sidelines. Jason waved his hand signaling to Anarchy that it was now his turn.

"My move then," Anarchy said as he drew his card. "I'll start by summoning out Solar Flare Dragon."

A Chinese dragon made entirely out of fire appeared on the field. As it appeared it breathed out a plume of yellow flames. (Atk:1500/Def:1000)

"Then I'll play Poison of the Old Man," Anarchy continued "With this card I can either deal you 800 points of damage or I can gain 1200 life points. I think I'll choose to deal some damage. Then I'll end my turn thus activating my dragon's effect. In which I deal an additional five hundred damage to you."

Two vials appeared. One was purple and the other was green. The green one vanished and the purple one then flew over to Jason and shattered at his feet creating a giant cloud of purple smoke which reduced his life points. Then Anarchy's dragon breathed a fireball at Jason's face, further reducing his life points.

 _Now I know how people facing Burstinatrix or Inferno Wing feel._ Jason thought

Jason: 1700

Anarchy: 2300

"And, once again… the shadows, claim their price. I love this part," Anarchy said raising the rod again. This time part of his arm disappeared but both of Jason's legs followed its example and faded from existence. All that was left of him was his arms and his head.

Jason drew his card. This wasn't going well. He played a monster on the field then played a card from his hand. He then raised his pad as the cards took effect.

"Through the effect of Time Machine I special summon Tennessee Kid Cooper then I activate the trap card Bugged Painting. This card allows me to send any spell card from my deck to the graveyard," Jason "said."

The western raccoon appeared, twirling his rifle in his hand. (Atk:1600/Def:1500)

"Hey Rioichi! Let's kick some tail," His spirit greeted, aiming down his sight at Anarchy.

"Calm yourself my descendant. Jason-sama will order us to act as he sees fit," Rioichi replied never opening his eyes or moving from his meditative position.

Then Jason's last face down flipped up. This one had a picture of a cluttered desk with Sly hiding under it. Suddenly a small bomb fell from the sky and Anarchy's dragon exploded and Jason smirked. He raised the pad again after seeing Anarchy looking at him, confused.

"The spell I sent to the grave was called sticky bomb. When it is sent to the graveyard I can destroy the monster with the lowest ATK points, which in this case is your Solar Dragon," Jason said "Now I play Spellbook Inside the Pot. This card allows us both to draw three cards."

They both drew three more cards then Jason smirked as he removed the cards whose effects had already activated from his disk. He then placed Sly onto the field. The card image was of Sly crouching down with his cane behind his back in the streets of a dark city. (Atk:1500/Def:1200)

"Anarchy, I would like you to meet Sly Cooper," Jason "said" as he held the pad out for Anarchy to read. Jason placed one card face down then pointed at Anarchy indicating for his monsters to attack the shadow duelist, hoping to finish the duel there and then. Rioichi nodded and leapt at Anarchy. Only for the pale man to press a button on his disk.

"I activate the trap card Gravity Bind. With this, all of your monsters that have a level of four or higher cannot attack," He said. Rioichi stopped in midair then fell on his face. Jason grimaced. Maybe he couldn't attack but he could still use his monsters' effects. He raised his pad once more.

"I activate the effects of my Sly Cooper and Tennessee," Jason "said." "I can destroy one card at random in your hand then I can add another one to my hand."

Tennessee looked down his gun and fired at Anarchy's hand destroying one of his four remaining cards. Then Sly leapt through the air and plucked a card from Anarchy's hand with his cane and deposited the card into Jason's hand. It was a Monster Reborn.

 _Excellent, now to just get the right card into my graveyard._ Jason thought. He gestured for Anarchy to go.

"My move then?" Anarchy asked, drawing his card. "I think I'll end this duel here and now. I activate my facedown. Just Desserts! With this card I can deal five hundred damage to you for every monster you control. Then I'll activate another Poison of the Old Man ending this duel."

The purple and green vials appeared, hovering in the air once again. Like before the green one vanished and the purple one sailed in Jason's direction. Suddenly he heard a loud roar and saw a giant ape appear and grab his monsters. Just when the two deadly effect were about to hit him, Jason pressed a button on his disk, activating his last trap. It flipped up revealing a shield with the cooper emblem on its front. The pad was already up and waiting when Anarchy looked at Jason expectantly.

"I activated my trap, Shield. When I would take effect damage while I have a Cooper monster on my field I can negate all of it for this turn," Jason "said." The shield appeared and blocked the vial and baboon. Anarchy laughed his wheezing laugh.

"You've bought yourself a turn," He laughed, and then he snarled. "But that's it. Go on." Jason nodded and drew his card. He looked at his hand. Yes, he had everything he needed. Jason raised the pad.

"I activate the spell card Cooper Lineage. With this card I can send one Cooper monster to the graveyard and have a Cooper monster on my side of the field gain it's ATK points," Jason "said." Rioichi pulled out a thick book with the Cooper emblem on its cover and then nodded. His stats went up as he was surrounded by a bright red aura. (Atk:4200) Anarchy laughed once he read this.

"Hah, none of your monsters can attack me, so what difference does it make?" He laughed. Jason smirked and raised the pad again.

"Who ever said I wanted the ATK points. I just wanted to get this specific monster into my grave," Jason "said."

The duelists watched as a holographic image of a raccoon that looked a lot like Sly appeared. He was pretty much an older version of Sly, cane and everything. When the image appeared, Sly took off his hat and smiled at the older raccoon.

"See ya in a sec, Dad" Sly said.

"Now I can activate the Monster Reborn that you so kindly gave to me through the effect of my Sly last turn," Jason "said." He slipped the desired card into his disk. The older raccoon rose out of the ground as a strange blue gemstone appeared and shined a ray of light on the spot where he was rising. The pad was out again with new writing on it.

"Welcome to the field, Connor Cooper," It said. As the raccoon readied himself for battle, Jason saw Sly with a tear or two in his eyes. (Atk:2500/Def:2000) "Unfortunately he won't be staying out long as I activate my facedown. Loving Sacrifice. With this card I can tribute any Cooper monster and gain life points equal to its ATK points."

Connor dissolved into particles of light and Jason's life points went up.

 _Sorry, Sly._ Jason thought.

"Its fine Jason," Sly replied, eyes still watery. "It was nice to see my dad though."

"Yeah, now you can make a comeback," Asami cheered

Jason: 4200

Anarchy: 2300

"Now that my life points are back up I can last a few turns," Jason "said." Anarchy grimaced. "Before I end my turn I'll activate the effects of Sly and Tennessee."

Once again Tennessee aimed down his gun and fired on Anarchy's hand. It hit his center card, leaving him with two. Then sly once again stole a card from his hand and gave it to Jason. It was a Swords of Revealing Light. Not particularly helpful against this deck. Jason gestured for Anarchy to go. The aura around Rioichi faded. (Atk:1700)

"Nice magic trick. What to see one of mine?" he asked after drawing his card. "I'm going to make that Sly Cooper… disappear. I play the spell Offering of the Doomed. This destroys one monster you control so long as I skip my next draw phase."

A table appeared, piled high with little knickknacks. A cooper coin, a few iron plates, a spoon, a piece of bread, along with other stuff poor people would be able to offer to whatever god this table was for. There was a deep rumbling and a giant bolt of lightning fell from the sky and struck Sly.

"Guess I'll be joining Dad sooner than I thought," Sly said as he was struck.

"Tada!" Anarchy said, holding out his arms at where Sly used to be. "It's vanished!" he laughed at that and waved for Jason to go. Jason nodded and drew his card.

"I activate the spell card Rendezvous," Jason "said." "With this I can return three monster cards to my hand. I choose Sir Gallath Cooper, Sly Cooper and Connor Cooper." Holographic images of the three monsters appeared and flew into Jason's hand. "Now through the effect of Time Machine I summon Gallath onto the field. Then I summon Sly back into action."

The two grey raccoons appeared, weapons at the ready. (Atk:1300/Def:1100) (Atk:1500/Def:1200)

"Now I activate the equip spell card Samurai Costume," Jason continued. "I can only equip this to Sly but it's worth it. Because every time you would deal damage to me through an effect I can deal it to you instead."

A set of iron plate armor appeared around Sly, obscuring everything about him except for his tail which stuck out of the bottom of the armor. At his belt there was a sheathed katana held in place by poorly wrapped cloth. On his back there was a quiver full of arrows. And, completing the disguise, a bamboo bow appeared in the raccoon's hand, replacing his cane.

"Okay, I can't see a thing," Sly said as a helmet appeared over his face.

"Well, think of it this way. Now we don't have to look at that ugly mug of yours," Tennessee joked. Even Rioichi smirked a little at that.

"I'll end my turn," Jason "said," ignoring his monsters. Anarchy smirked. As Jason had forgotten to use Tennessee's effect.

"My move," Anarchy said, beginning his turn. "I have to skip my draw phase but that won't stop me from playing Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards." He drew two then smirked. "I set a monster face down then end my turn with a facedown."

"That's all?" Jason "asked," before drawing his card. "I play he field spell Cooper Vault! Now whenever my monsters battle your monsters they gain 1000 ATK points."

"Now with the Samurai costume and the Vault no matter what Anarchy does he's at a disadvantage," Syrus realized, thinking out loud from his spot by the wall. Jason nodded.

 _Now all I have to do is find a way to get past that Gravity Bind and I can get out of this shadow duel._ Jason thought as he signaled the end of his turn. Anarchy drew his card.

"The kid seems to be unafraid and he's dueling well, damn near countering my every move," He muttered. "Better finish this quickly."

"I activate the trap card Call of the Haunted to bring back my Solar Flare Dragon. Then I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Samurai Costume," Anarchy said.

A gravestone appeared and the fiery dragon from before rose from it in all of it's glory. Then a massive storm appeared above Sly and ripped away the Japanese armor.

"Then I flip summon my Stealth Bird. Now my monster has any effect, like your monsters, but better. When it is flipped summoned I can have it deal one thousand damage to you." Anarchy's facedown monster flipped over to reveal a transparent bird that flew straight at Jason, reducing his life points. (Atk:700/Def:1700) "Before I end my turn I activate my monster's second ability. I can flip him back over. Now I end my turn and you know what that means. Five hundred points of damage." Like before, the dragon breathed a ball of fire right at Jason's face, reducing his life points further. The transparent bird disappeared and the card that it flew over flipped back over, insuring that Jason would get even more pain next turn.

Jason: 2700

Anarchy: 2300

Jason drew his card. He didn't have anything else to do except signal the end of his turn. Anarchy smirked then drew his card.

"My go," He said. "I activate the continuous spell card Wave-Motion Cannon! With this all I have to do is wait a turn to kill you. Because for every turn that passed while this card is out I can deal one thousand damage when I send this card to the grave." A green pot like cannon appeared. "Now I flip summon my Stealth Bird once again, set it back down, and then end my turn."

The transparent bird appeared and flew at Jason then the dragon breathed fire. Bringing Jason's life points down below two thousand.

Jason: 1200

Anarchy: 2300

Jason felt them. He felt the bird's beak and the fire. How? These were holograms and he hadn't felt the effects for the rest of the duel why now? He knew that shadow games made the dueling real but if this way a shadow game why had he only now felt the effects?

All of these questions raced through Jason's head as he knelt on the ground shivering from the damage he felt. His head felt like it was trying to crack itself open from shear throbbing. All of the areas of Jason's body that Anarchy had made disappear felt like they were burning, as if the parts had been sent to the hottest parts of hell. Jason fell onto his right side then slowly curled up into a pain ridden ball.

"Jason!" Asami cried from the totem pole as Anarchy smirked.

 _He's broken._ Anarchy thought gleefully

"Come on Jace, get up," Syrus encouraged fearfully.

"Hey mate get up, we're not done yet," Tennessee said, standing over Jason with Gallath, Sly, and Rioichi. "It's all a sham anyway."

"Tell me that when I'm not in utter agony," Jason hissed through his teeth, well he mouthed the words but no sound came out.

"Look there," Sly said, crouching down next to Jason and pointing at Anarchy with his cane. Jason uncurled slightly and looked at where Sly was pointing. Jason saw Anarchy shimmering slightly. He also saw the parts of Anarchy that had "vanished" shimmering right along with the rest of his body. Jason stood up, his body was still in pain but it had lessened, slightly. Jason turned to Asami and made hand signs at her, the same signs that he used to communicate with Jaden.

"I'm ok" the hand signs said. "I'll win this. I'll get you out no matter what." He hadn't expected for Asami to understand what he had said and so he was shocked when she nodded and made some signs of her own.

"I believe you."

Jason held a small rock in his hand that he had picked up when he stood. He threw it at the rod that was poking out of Anarchy's jacket. The rock sailed through the air and shattered the fake item. Immediately the bodies of the duelists returned. Jason drew his card as Anarchy's eyes widened in shock.

"Hey you guys are back," Syrus cheered.

"I play the card Raccoon Fusion," Jason "said." With this I can send up to five Cooper monsters to my grave to special summon a fusion monster that is compatible. So I'll send all of my monster to the grave to special summon the one the only Super Sly Cooper."

A blue and red swirling vortex appeared and all of Jason's monster flew into it. what flew out was not what most people were expecting. It was a golden version of Sly with green attire instead of blue. (Atk:?/Def:2500)

"And because I used three monsters other than Sly Cooper two things happen," Jason "said." "The first is that my monster gains three thousand ATK points. The second is that I get to destroy every spell and trap card on the field, including your Gravity Bind."

A golden radiance burst out of the fusion monster. It destroyed everything that wasn't a monster. Because Call of the Haunted was the only thing keeping Solar Flare Dragon alive when it shattered so too did the fiery dragon. Then the golden radiance came back and the golden raccoon's stats went up. (Atk:3000) Jason then played a card facedown and signaled for Anarchy to go.

"What're you doing?" Syrus asked, shocked at Jason not attacking with Super Sly. "He'll beat you next turn for sure," Anarchy drew his card then snarled.

"I play the card Ground Collapse. Now the two monster zones on your right side cannot be used," Anarchy said as the indicated monster zones turned into sink holes. "Now I flip summon my Stealth Bird and deal you another one thousand damage." The transparent bird appeared and flew at Jason's face once more. "Then I flip it down once more and end my turn." The bird disappeared and the facedown card appeared.

Jason: 200

Anarchy: 2300

Jason smiled jerkily as he drew his card.

"I activate the trap card Urgent Disguise. With this I can take any equip spell from my deck and equip it to a Sly Cooper monster I control. I choose the Jailbird Costume," Jason "said."

A classic black and white prison costume appeared around Super Sly. His green baseball hat got replaced with a small cylindrical hat that had no bill. His cane was replaced with a giant iron ball that had a chain that was attached to his leg. Super Sly's expression became one of effort as he held up the ball.

"Now I summon Salim Al Kupar in ATK mode," Jason "said" before he placed the card onto his disk.

A purple raccoon appeared. He wore a white cotton shirt that bulged a little at his wrists with a yellow vest and a yellow sash that was tied around his waist. He wore a worn and patched green cotton pants. He had red pointy toed shoes, earning the name "Jason's pointy toed weirdo" from Jaden. He wore a hat that looked like it belonged on the head of a bishop in the medieval church with an orange feather sticking straight up and laid against the hat. He had a white mustache and goatee that, unfortunately, looked like the guys from KFC. So Jason hadn't been the best drawer at the time big deal. In the raccoon's hand he carried a bladed staff that had a fancy, and pointed, version of the Cooper question mark. (Atk:1200/Def:2000)

"Now I activate my raccoon's effect. When he's summoned I can take any spell card in my graveyard and add it to my hand. I think I'll choose my Cooper Lineage," Jason said before digging through his graveyard. "with that done I'll activate it and send to my grave Caveman Bob Cooper."

A holographic image of a brown, saber toothed, prehistoric raccoon appeared. He had next to no clothes on, covering himself only with a shredded cheetah pelt. In his hand he carried a chipped hooked cane like bone. His image hovered in the air for a moment before flying into the grave yard. Super Sly took out the same book that Rioichi had read earlier in the duel. And he too was surrounded in a bright red aura as his stats went up. (Atk:5000)

"Now I activate the effect of the Jailbird costume. I can destroy any facedown card I choose. In return my monster loses half of his ATK points," Jason "said." He then pointed at Anarchy's facedown bird. Super Sly dropped the giant ball onto the ground and jumped onto it balancing as he did so. He then rolled over and crushed the facedown card. (Atk:2500) Jason then pointed at the exposed Anarchy, signaling for the golden raccoon to attack. The Super Cooper nodded and leapt into the air bringing the iron ball down on the shadowy man in a devastating attack ending the duel.

Jason: 200 (winner)

Anarchy: 0

Anarchy collapsed and dropped his cards and his knife. Suddenly the pain that Jason had been experiencing died down to a dull throbbing in his head. He went over to Anarchy and picked up his knife and started to cut down Asami. Jason thought that things were going great, that was until Anarchy started laughing.

"You, you just couldn't be beaten could you? This, this is what happens when a shadow duel goes aerie, people, well people die," He laughed as he tried to stand up and fell to his knees.

"What are you talking about?" Asami asked as she hopped down from the totem pole. Anarchy simply laughed some more. "You're not dead."

"You truly are unbeatable, aren't you?" Anarchy asked, ignoring Asami and licking his lips. Jason shrugged as Syrus joined them. "I think you were destined to do this."

"And I think you're destined to be in a padded cell for the rest of your life. But that's not likely to happen" Asami muttered.

"Maybe me and the cyclops' brother can share one," Anarchy said before laughing some more. The two Slifers looked at him quizzically.

"What are you talking about? Jaden is the sanest person I know. He's the Slifer's hero. Everyone likes him, well except for Chazz," Syrus said.

"And they will, until their 'hero' breaks completely. Until they get a good long look at the real Jaden Yuki. And all the heroic things he's done," Anarchy said before he fell onto his back, laughing hysterically. "You didn't seriously think that I was the only one did you? No, you always need an ace in the hole. Ours is Jaden, what's yours?" he laughed harder almost rolling on the floor. Asami grabbed him by his collar and brought her face near his scarred one.

"What did you do?" she demanded.

"We took Duel Academy's shooting star and we brought him down to our level. It wasn't all that hard, you see madness is… like gravity. All it takes is a little push," Anarchy said before actually coughing because he was laughing so hard and couldn't breathe. "All it took was a hidden camera, to take a picture of his little baby brother at his worst. Would you like to see? Hahahahaha"

Anarchy pulled a small tablet out of his jacket and tossed it a few feet away. Jason picked it up and clicked it on revealing an image of him curled up, holding his head in pain. An image like that could definitely cause Jaden to snap. Just then Jason heard a loud crack.

 _Oh no, we're in deep shit now._ He thought as he saw streams of black mist coating the floor. Something brushed again his leg and Jason saw a black slime ball squirming towards Anarchy. Jason looked and saw that tons of the little things already coated Anarchy's body. Anarchy didn't seem to notice in fact he was still laughing his head off.

"Ooh I'd better go find that brother of yours before he does something he regrets," Anarchy said, standing up as the slimes crawled up his chest. He looked down at the slimes and his face fell. "It seems that the shadows will indeed claim their price. Hehe, wait. That's not funny. That's not funny a-." By then he was entirely covered in slimes and before he could finish his sentence, he sank into the mist without a trace.

Jason took his pad and ripped off the sheets that he had used before writing on it again.

"Come on we need to find Jaden," It said. The others nodded and they all walked out of the cave in search for the Evil Hero duelist.


	7. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**THIS CHAPTER IS ONE BIG AUTHOR'S NOTE, BUT IT IS STILL VERY RELEVANT.**

 **HEY GUYS SORRY FOR THE LONG WAIT. BUT I NEED YOUR HELP. AS YOU KNOW WE HAVE BEEN STUCK ON** **THE SHADOWS OF THE MIND** **ARC FOR ABOUT FOUR MONTHS NOW. SO HERE'S MY PROBLEM I NEED A DECK THE EMBODIES "FEAR ITSELF" FOR RAVEN'S DUEL. I HAVE HAD A VERY HARD TIME COMING UP WITH ONE OR FINDING A PRE-EXISTING ARC-TYPE THAT SUITS MY PURPOSES. SO I BEG OF YOU, DEAR READERS, PLEASE PM ME YOUR ORIGINAL DECKS OR A PRE-EXISTING ARC-TYPE THAT YOU THINK WOULD WORK. OR, IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN PM ME AND ASK FOR MY EMAIL AND THEN EMAIL ME IMAGES OF ORIGINAL CARDS THAT YOU THINK WOULD WORK.**

 **THANK YOU ALL FOR READING THIS AND HELPING ME MOVE ON WITH MY IDEAS,**

 **CALAZAR**


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